removing 'recent' files names from finder in MacOS

I'm assuming you are talking about Finder > Go > Recents

Files there cannot be deleted without deleting the files themselves. It's just an alternate view of the files on your computer.

(If you are instead talking about the Apple Menu > Recent Items or Finder > Go > Recent Folders, those both have a "Clear Menu" option at the bottom of the menu)

see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8137012

Just right click and remove from side bar and then you won’t see the recents folder, that what I’ve done :) To be clear this ONLY removes 'Recents' from the sidebar NOT finder/go dropdown