I am not sure I am clear on how to fix my similar problem. I have several years of InfoPath forms that use the same column (Area Name). After a Migration to SharePoint 2010 the Display name is showing up in SharePoint and InfoPath as Area_x0020Name. This is an issue because that is the name that shows as the column heading in SharePoint and column name when I attempt to publish the form. InfoPath will not allow me to change the name.
Is this just a SharePoint problem or is there something I should be able to do in InfoPath to fix this. The field name on the form is correct it is just column name that InfoPath sees as Area_x0020Name when publishing.