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Changing your Mac’s Computer Name

February 15th, 2007 - How to, Mac OS X, Tips & Tricks

Someone recently asked me how to change their Mac’s computer name because they were annoyed by the extra lengthy default in the ‘Computer Name’ screensaver. Although this individual was concerned about their screensaver, changing your Mac’s name is also important because that is how others will find you on a network, and it’s also what you will see by default in the OS X command line. Most of you probably know how to change their computer name already, but for those who don’t here is how.


Changing your Mac’s computer name is simple, here’s how:

  • Launch ‘System Preferences’
  • Click the ‘Sharing’ icon
  • Type in what you want your new computer name to be
  • Close ‘System Preferences’ – it’s that easy

Name your Mac whatever you want, but you’ll want to keep it distinguishable from other Mac’s on your network. As mentioned earlier, this is also what you will see in the remarkably basic “Computer Name” screensaver. You also might want to consider how it will look with the default settings in the OS X command line, this image shows what the modified computer name looks like in the Terminal:

Posted by: Editor

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Comments:

Comments: 22

Comment from Jeff
Time: December 31, 2007, 3:13 pm

Thank you very much. I just picked up a used MacBook Pro 17″ computer from my brother-in-laws company. it had his companies name all over it… yet it is now my computer… was wondering how I could get it to reflect the new owner and this did the trick. Thank you again. Easy yet helpful.

Comment from Marc
Time: January 3, 2008, 10:48 am

I have just cloned a mac onto another mac and the computer name is greyed out. I cant change it and it is driving me insane….anyone got any ideas?

Comment from Allen
Time: January 28, 2009, 2:33 pm

Finder, System Preferences, Sharing
Change Computer Name

~and/or~
Finder, System Preferences, Accounts
Change Name

Comment from MihneaM
Time: January 30, 2009, 1:40 pm

@Marc: the computer name might be grayed out because the settings could be locked. Click the lock icon in the lower-left side of the window. You might be asked for the password… and voila! now the computer name can be edited.

Comment from MihneaM
Time: January 30, 2009, 1:40 pm

@Marc: the computer name might be grayed out because the settings could be locked. Click the lock icon in the lower-left side of the window. You might be asked for the password… and voila! now the computer name can be edited.

Comment from confused
Time: March 15, 2009, 12:45 pm

I have a macbook pro 10.5.6 after changing name as you stated, it changes it for the computer screensaver name, but the old name is still what shows up in the sidebar, which is what is broadcast to other computers wirelessly.
help with sidebar name change please??

Comment from Ollie
Time: March 16, 2009, 5:04 am

I just this minute set up my new mac book pro and after i clicked ‘continue’ it said choose a name (this cannot be changed later) – i think this is what your refering to. I just WISH i’d payed more attention as it took my computer name from the first part of the email address which is registered to iTunes. !! GRR

Comment from melissa
Time: April 23, 2009, 2:32 pm

I just came back from the “genius” bar and got off the phone with Apple help. I had to explain to the guy on the phone that when you name your computer, the name is permanent! Anyway, the genius at the store upgraded my system and named it “administrator.” I have changed the Computer Name in all of the places listed above (I’m not an idiot) and still the finder and the House icon say “administrator.” So without speaking down to me, can someone please help me change this? Because clearly the genius and the Apple care guy on the phone cannot.

Comment from David Chambers
Time: April 28, 2009, 6:23 am

@melissa: Renaming your home folder is surprisingly easy. You can literally select it in Finder, click return, and overtype it. Do not do this, however! Doing so will result in a new user account being created the next time the computer is started. This is clearly not what you are after.

I did a quick search, which led to an article which linked to two useful pages. The first, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428?viewlocale=en_US, is Apple’s 40 step walk through on changing the user short name or home directory name. The second, http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/ChangeShortName.html, is a simpler alternative to the 40 step solution.

I hope these links prove useful.

Comment from Erik
Time: May 1, 2009, 12:24 am

I am a newbee myself but If you want to change the short name in Finder you probably should follow these intructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428
Be sure to enable root login and then login as “other” with “root”/password

Pingback from My Mac Life: Day 6 | Leo Newball, Jr.
Time: May 11, 2009, 6:04 am

[...] Mac (a Macintosh LC) was also named Avalon, so I consider this MacBook Pro a part of its lineage. Changing the computer’s name was very easy, a task that’s never hard on any operating [...]

Comment from Samantha
Time: June 22, 2009, 8:55 pm

Thank you so much for putting this out there. I am so glad that I don’t have to stare at my ex-husbands name as my macbook’s name. I love you. God bless..
P.S. one good thing did come out of the relationship… I got the Mac!

Comment from jichi
Time: July 17, 2009, 4:09 am

Is there a way to change this attribute under terminal?

Comment from jichi
Time: July 17, 2009, 4:09 am

Is there a way to change this attribute under terminal?

Comment from Mark Eagle
Time: November 15, 2009, 2:51 pm

thank you for this posting. I had a Macbook air which had that screensaver, but I always wondered why does it still show up that name and how do i change it? I am really glad that now whenever somebody sees my computer in screensaver mode, they don’t think that it’s someone elses.

Comment from Bob
Time: November 21, 2009, 4:46 pm

Perfect! I needed to do this because it got changed when I updated to leopard. Thanks!

Comment from Brennan
Time: December 23, 2009, 1:31 pm

@jichi I was wondering the same thing. If you find out, please let me know too.

Cheers,
Brennan

Comment from Brennan
Time: December 23, 2009, 1:35 pm

@jichi Wow, ok so I was assuming the std unix/linux cmd wouldn’t work. I was wrong :)

So here it is, update your hostname via the cli:

$ hostname
your_hostname_spits_out

$ sudo hostname new_hostname
(Even an account w/full Admin privs will need to run the cmd w/sudo privs)

$ hostname
your_new_hostname_spits_out

Comment from Emilio
Time: January 9, 2010, 6:23 am

I didn’t know it was that simple.

Thnx man.

Comment from Anders
Time: January 14, 2010, 1:47 am

I tried the hostname command and that changes the name. But after a reboot it all looks as it was before.

My computer name in System Preferences/Sharing is a perfectly logical name which I prefer to use. BUT when I open Terminal and for instance give the command “hostname -s” I get the totally weird name – “1e8bf16cb6904c6″. I don’t want to see this name anymore! You can’t ping it, you can’t do anything whith it. To ping my computer I use the name found in System/Preferences and that works fine.

I use Mac OS 10.2.6

Comment from Cameron
Time: February 16, 2010, 2:37 am

Hey, I have a Mac running Snow Leopard, and whenever I connect to my home internet (via PPPoE) it changes my computer name to xyz.netvigator.com – does anyone know how to stop this? It is driving me insane because i get a new computer name everyday when I connect to the internet, and none of my home networking stuff is working.

Much Thanks

Comment from john
Time: February 18, 2010, 8:07 pm

Thank you! So much easier than any of the other suggestions I have seen! Worked like a charm!

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February 15th, 2007