When you said "I want to be able to label (name) the inputs on the status display" I thought you were talking about an LCD.

When you use the STR command you are starting at 0 not 1.

Try this instead

for i = 0 to 7
read i, port1name[i]
next i

AND

for i = 0 to 7
write i, port1name[i]
next i