diff -u b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageComparer.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageComparer.php
--- b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageComparer.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageComparer.php
@@ -239,7 +239,11 @@
 
     // Renames should be ordered so that dependencies are renamed last. This
     // ensures that if there is logic in the configuration entity class to keep
-    // names in sync it should still work.
+    // names in sync it will still work. $this->targetNames is in the desired
+    // order due to the use of configuration dependencies in
+    // \Drupal\Core\Config\StorageComparer::getAndSortConfigData().
+    // Node type is a good example of a configuration entity that renames other
+    // configuration when it is renamed.
     // @see \Drupal\node\Entity\NodeType::postSave()
     foreach ($this->targetNames as $name) {
       $data = $this->targetData[$name];
diff -u b/core/modules/config/lib/Drupal/config/Tests/ConfigImportRenameValidationTest.php b/core/modules/config/lib/Drupal/config/Tests/ConfigImportRenameValidationTest.php
--- b/core/modules/config/lib/Drupal/config/Tests/ConfigImportRenameValidationTest.php
+++ b/core/modules/config/lib/Drupal/config/Tests/ConfigImportRenameValidationTest.php
@@ -154,10 +154,10 @@
     // because the rename is for simple configuration.
     try {
       $this->configImporter->import();
-      $this->fail('Expected ConfigImporterException thrown when a renamed configuration entity does not match the existing entity type.');
+      $this->fail('Expected ConfigImporterException thrown when simple configuration is renamed.');
     }
     catch (ConfigImporterException $e) {
-      $this->pass('Expected ConfigImporterException thrown when a renamed configuration entity does not match the existing entity type.');
+      $this->pass('Expected ConfigImporterException thrown when simple configuration is renamed.');
       $expected = array(
         String::format('Rename operation for simple configuration. Existing configuration !old_name and staged configuration !new_name.', array('old_name' => 'config_test.old', 'new_name' => 'config_test.new'))
       );