New Window.name Value Doesn't Stick. Old Value Returns Unless The Window Is Refreshed

I'm having some difficulty in renaming a window object. I'm opening the window in question via a targetted submit:

<!-- CODE EXCERPT FROM WINDOW 1 -->
<form target="newWin">

Based on certain criteria, I sometimes need to close window 1 and have
window 2 take its name:

<!-- CODE EXCERPT FROM WINDOW 2 (currently named "newWin" -->
var strWindowName = opener.name;
opener.name = null;
opener.close();
//Ensure the window doesn't hold onto the instance
opener = null;

//Rename the window
window.name = strWindowName;
top.name = strWindowName;

While an alert at the end of my function indicates that the renaming
has been successful, when I submit the form on window 2 I find that
the window name has reverted to "newWin". For some reason however,
refreshing the window makes the correct (previous opener) name stick.