Can fieldrefs in content type definitions change the internal name of a site column?

Question

I have a content type that references a built-in site column like this:

<Elements ...>
    <ContentType ...>
        <FieldRefs>
            <!-- a reference to the built-in field called "Email2" -->
            <FieldRef ID="{e232d6c8-9f49-4be2-bb28-b90570bcf167}"
                      Name="EmailUrgent"
                      DisplayName="Urgent Email"/>
            <!-- other fields -->
        </FieldRefs>
    </ContentType>
</Elements>

This content type will deploy just fine. In visual studio, I created a list template and instance from this content type. Here is the first part of the Schema.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<List xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" Title="Station List" FolderCreation="FALSE" Direction="$Resources:Direction;" Url="Lists/MyContentTypeName" BaseType="0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <MetaData>
    <ContentTypes>
      <ContentType ID="0x01009e5b439643e048d6a83e8431f4322f0500e0e09a4c1ccb443f97a9dc228fe0b9f8" Name="MyContentTypeName" Group="MyGroup" Description="" Inherits="TRUE" Version="0">
        <FieldRefs>       
                  <!-- other fieldrefs -->
          <FieldRef ID="{e232d6c8-9f49-4be2-bb28-b90570bcf167}" Name="EmailUrgent" DisplayName="Urgent Email" />
        </FieldRefs>
      </ContentType>
    </ContentTypes>
    <Fields>      
      <Field ID="{E232D6C8-9F49-4be2-BB28-B90570BCF167}" Name="Email2" StaticName="Email2" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3" DisplayName="$Resources:core,E-mail_2_OL;" Group="$Resources:core,Person_Event_Columns;" Type="Text" Sealed="TRUE" AllowDeletion="TRUE" />
      <!-- other fields -->
    </Fields>
        <Views>
           <!-- blah blah -->
        </Views>
        <Forms>
           <!-- blah blah -->
        </Forms>
    </MetaData>
</List>

And finally, the list instance xml:

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ListInstance Title="MyContentType"
                OnQuickLaunch="TRUE"
                TemplateType="10001"
                Url="Lists/MyContentTypeName"
                Description="My List Instance">
      <Data>
          <Rows>
              <Row>
                  <Field Name="EmailUrgent">[email protected]</Field>
                  <!-- other fields -->
              </Row>
                  </Rows>
          </Data>
    </ListInstance>
</Elements>

It's the list instance that causes a problem, ending ultimately in an error like this:

Error occurred in deployment step 'Activate Features': Column 'EmailUrgent' does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.

The only thing I see that seems questionable is that I try to change the internal names of the fields in the content type definition. Is that where I'm going wrong, or is it somewhere else?

Answer 1

AFAIK you cannot change internal name once the site column is created. The name must be same as internal name which is guaranteed to be unique once a site column is created.