Naming my application in android

I think I'm getting senile because I was convinced that to give a name to your application, you had to fill this part of the manifest:

<application android:icon="@drawable/icon"  android:label="MyApplicationName">

However for a reason I don't understand, my application gets the name of my first activity, in which I load data, thus, it is called "Loading", defined as follows in the manifest:

<activity android:name="AccueilSplash" android:label="Loading">

Any idea why that is?

The launcher actually shows android:label and android:icon for activity(ies) that declare

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

so application label is of no use.

It is an already known issue of the tool (I suppose you are using eclipse). Google Group - Android Developers.

The Application and the first Activity share the same name specified in the android:label field of the <activity> item.

If you want to use different titles for the launcher in the app list and the first activity, you can choose between these options:

1.a) Set just the Application name in the Manifest.

<application
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        ... >

and don't specify android:label="@string/title_first_activity" for the first Activity. It will inherit the Application label.

OR

1.b) Set the Application name in the android:label field of the first Activity in the Manifest.

 <activity
            android:label="@string/app_name"
            ... >
            <intent-filter>
                  <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                  <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
 </activity>

The <application> item will share the same label of the <activity> item, whether you specify a value for the <application>'s android:label field or not.

The next step is:

2. Set the title for the first Activity at run-time in the FirstActivity.class

   @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    	setContentView(R.layout.activity_login);
    	setTitle(R.string.title_activity_login);
    	//TODO: insert the rest of the code
   

   }

In this way your first Activity will change his title few moments after it will be shown on the screen of your phone.

Are you referring to the title at the top of the screen when you run the application? If so, that title bar shows the label of the current activity I believe.