Of course they can. In fact you can do this without editting any entity files. Just make a copy of the String folder (in the data folder of the expansion of your choice), make a new mod folder, paste it, then search the English.str folder for "Gauss Defense Platform". Once you find the correct string label (it should say something like IDSPlanetModule... above it), just change Gauss Defense Platform to another name and save.
