[prog] SQL - "insert into"

[Sue Stones]

I am trying to sort out a database problem on a system using Visual 
basic and ADO.net (which is driving me up the wall).  That part aside, I 
am trying to insert some information into some tables.  What I want to 
do is select a whole lot of rows with the name attribute 
AB1_somthingOrOther, change the name to AB2_somthingOrOther and inset 
the whole lot back into the relevant tables.

I know that I can do something like

INSERT INTO "table1" ("column1", "column2", ...)
SELECT "column3", "column4", ...
FROM "table2"

to insert multiple rows at once.  But can I put the information into 
some other data table to make the changes to the name and then insert it 
into a table.

In other words are there less direct ways of inserting multiple rows in 
to tables with SQL.

sue