can you create a list of all the photo names in a catalog?

There is no easy way to do it.  You could use the Organizer's Sort By: Name filter to place your images in alpha-numeric order.  

If you really want to put the file names into an Excel file, you can find the information in your catalog's database file which is named:  catalog.pseXXdb  (where XX is the version number of Elements).  You would then need a SQLite database viewer to retrieve the information.  I use one called DB Browser for SQLite and was able to export a table that included the file name to a csv file which I was then able to open in Excel.