You can change the Prefix, Output Name and Suffix using the set_target_properties() function and the PREFIX / OUTPUT_NAME / SUFFIX property in the following way:
Prefix:
set_target_properties(new_thing PROPERTIES PREFIX "")
Output Name:
set_target_properties(new_thing PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME "better_name")
Suffix:
set_target_properties(new_thing PROPERTIES SUFFIX ".so.1")