By what mechanism does finder insert a space in an app's name?

Solution 1:

That's handled by localization.

If you check the Info.plist, there's a key LSHasLocalizedDisplayName with a value of true. That means that there are localized names for the application. Localizations are stored in the app bundle in Contents/Resources. Since I'm using English, I can look in /System/Library/CoreServices/NotificationCenter.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings, and see the name of the app with the space in it.

Strings files are actually binary plists. You can view them in a human-readable fashion with

$ plutil -p /System/Library/CoreServices/NotificationCenter.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings
{
  "CFBundleDisplayName" => "Notification Center"
  "CFBundleName" => "Notification Center"
}