I would like to know how I should go about renaming the layers in my drawings with a prefix or suffix. Would this be better accomplished with VBA?

No need to use VBA. Try this :

;CODING STARTS HERE
;This routine will place a Prefix in front of all Layer names
;and rename them.
;Of course, it will not rename Layer "0" or "Defpoints".

(prompt "\nType ChLayName to run.........")
(defun C:ChLayName ( / acadDocument theLayers layName)
(vl-load-com)
(setq pre (getstring "\nEnter Layer Prefix : "))
(setq acadDocument (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))
(setq theLayers (vla-get-layers acadDocument))
(vlax-map-collection theLayers 'layer-mod)
(princ)
);defun

(defun layer-mod (theLayer)
(setq layName (vlax-get-property theLayer 'Name))
(if (not (member layName '("0" "Defpoints")))
(vla-put-Name thelayer (strcat pre layName))
) ;if
);defun
(princ)
;CODING ENDS HERE