i feel like an idiot for not knowing this but how do i rename a model?

I think your problem is that you didn't capitalize Parent, also you could make your script shorter by doing this:

local character = script.Parent
character.Name = [Name Here]

or even shorter like this:

script.Parent.Name = [Name Here]

If it's in a script not under the model, you would do do game.workspace.[ModelNameHere].Name = [NewModelName] . However if the model is in a different location such as ReplicatedStorage, Change the workspace to the location.

The problem is that when you change the value of the variable you lose the reference to the object/value you put in the first place.

So instead of saying:

local name = character.Name

name = "NameHere" -- Now you can't access the character's name anymore

do:

character.Name = "NameHere"

When making variables, only put the object inside it, so you can access the properties without losing reference.

I hope this helps!