In previous versions of Photoshop I’ve always set up F2 to open Layer Options dialog. The layer name field was focused by default, so that’s how I renamed layers.
For mysterious reasons in CS6 Adobe has removed Layer Options from the list of things for which you could use a keyboard shortcuts. I was upset. I had to use mouse to rename layer (which takes ages). And why on Earth out of all things would they remove this from the infinite list of configurable shortcuts?
I was almost going to file a bug report, but found a new Rename Layer... item in the Layer menu. Of course it is listed in configurable menu shortcut list, so now I have F2 as a shortcut for it:
I found out that Layer Options were removed from the keyboard setup because the very dialog was removed from Photoshop altogether. That makes sense now that you rename layer with a dedicated command and select its color from a popup menu.
So if you had the same problem, now you don’t. And if you haven’t bothered to set up a shortcut to rename a layer, it’s about time to do it: it will save you tons of time.