Outline stroke deletes layer and layer name

Looks like I've found a bug in the system. 

I have several hundred named layers as paths that are stroked - they are letters for a typeface.  Everytime I choose the stroked section and go to Object>Path>Outline stroke to work with the path for the character  Illustrator deletes the path layer as well as the name of the path.  Not asking to delete that, didn't hit delete, just outlining to work on same layer.  Really need to keep the layer name.  Gotta say, even with just the letter a to generate the letters: á, ă, â, ä, æ, ǽ, à, ā, ą, å, and ã, this bug is going to cause me a bunch of work properly naming the layers - not to speak of every other letter with accents and diacritical marks.  Anyone know a workaround whilc it gets fixed?