You can safely create a link and that will work fine. As long as you never create a user of the old name on the PC!
Also, you should make an easily found note of what you did as it is very easy to lose track when you create links like that.
Just remember that if you create a HARD link or a SYMlink, file/folder references in either folder set are the same & deleting in one will delete in the other. The same is not necessarily true if you create a SOFT link ( in that case you can delete the link itself without deleting the original data.
I use "Link Shell Extension" to be able to do this kind of thing direct from Windows Explorer.