Having looked on the web, I can find noting that fits the bill, so if anyone knows of something that fits the bill, please speak up.

In this modern day, like many, I take photographs, in my case birds. I have in the last year accumulated around 150k pictures, which really could do with better identification. I have already used a number of methods to append the species, but none are overly efficient.
 
My preference is to put the subject species into the filename.

The current filename format before species is
YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_IMAGENUMBER.jpg or .nef
After species I get
YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_IMAGENUMBER_Species_Name.jpg

As to the idea, which should work for just about anything or any filetype.

A variable size window, so a variable number of "tiles" can be created, allowing for multi monitor use.

The tile size would be around 150px. square or variable but the same size for all tiles.

Each tile is in effect a drop zone where a single, or multiple selection of images can be dropped and the assigned rename applied.

Ideally the tile should have the ability to overlay a users supplied image using the full tile, keeping aspect ratio and sizing to longest side.

Under the Tile should be the rename criteria, Ideally without Underscores, but could be user defined.

I envisage a user interface where the user would put the rename criteria

In this interface there would be
A row for each tile which would contain The rename criteria and a link to a source image which would be imported and then saved with the program settings to create the thumbnail on the tile.
 
Ideally a selector to indicate substitute spaces which in my case is an underscore, but maybe give the user a box to type what they want
A selector to indicate if the above character should be used to separate the rename criteria from original filename.
An option could also select prepend the original filename for those that would like it
These three could be just added as options to the row above. which would allow different affects for different adjustment is people needed it

The ability to save the rename set, so multiple sets for different purposes could be created.

Ideally the rename process might be some form of queue so that it does not interfere with subsequent drops. This would be most beneficial where a 100 or so images need a rename in one drop
Presumptions:
Files may be from multiple locations, but filenames are unique.
Renamed files will remain in their source folders

I have attached an image that gives an idea of the sort of layout (Borrowed from other software)


Hopefully that explains it :)

The original solution works. And that is what is needed at the end of the day. Hope to put it to a bigger test later on today. :)