>Has anyone run into trouble while attempting to rename a file which has a leading space?

How about:

     lcPath = sys(5) + curdir()
     gnCount = adir(gaTifs, '*.tif')
     for nCounter = 1 to gnCount
          rename (lcPath + gaTifs(nCounter,1)) to (lcPath + substr(gaTifs(nCounter,1)3,6))
     endfor