Hello:

I realize that this is an old thread. I was trying to do something similar to the OP. I have many entries that have variations of vendor names from downloading from bank feeds. It makes the P&L a complete mess. So I wanted a way to re-classify several transactions. 

Turns out, that it was MUCH simpler then that. At least for what I wanted to do, so I thought I would share. If you go to your Other Name list (or any list) you can rename the list items. If you use a name already in use, it offers to merge them!!! 

I learned about this at this post here:

Merge list entries in QuickBooks Desktop (intuit.com)

Very excited to share this. No need to buy software, export, import and ask the accountant to do it. It is just what I needed. Hope it helps someone here.