If your purpose is to rename the project itself, so it produces an executable with a different name and Bundle ID, etc., that's not supported by Xcode. Here's a procedure that will work: [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8616624�]. That procedure covers the case where your current project has already been placed in the Store. If that's not the case, you won't need all those steps.
If your purpose is versioning, take a look at
Using Subversion with Xcode 3 on Mac OS X Leopard.
If you just want to save the previous state of your project as a backup or informal version archive, use Finder to make a copy of the +project folder+ before starting Xcode and/or making any changes. E.g. if your project is in /Users/Tom/MyProject, duplicate the entire folder and name it /Users/Tom/MyProject1 before you make any changes with Xcode.
In no case should you ever rename the .xcodeproj file, except as part of a total renaming procedure like the one at the above link. Also never use Finder to rename one of the files which has been added to an Xcode project. To rename one of these tracked files, select the file in the Xcode Groups & Files tree panel, click the Info icon in the tool bar, and edit the Name: field under the General tab.
Hope that helps!
\- Ray