Naming a Mac, and why it matters more than you think
· 5 min read
A Mac arrives named after itself. Three machines in a household are then all called “MacBook Pro”, and every device list you look at for the next four years is ambiguous.
It takes thirty seconds to fix and there are two names, not one, which is where people get tripped up.
The two names
The computer name is the friendly one. It appears in AirDrop, Find My, Time Machine, the Finder sidebar on other machines, and the Sharing settings of everyone on your network.
The local hostname is the network one, derived from the computer name with spaces replaced by hyphens and .local appended. So “Anna’s Laptop” becomes Annas-Laptop.local.
Change the first and the second usually follows. Occasionally it does not, which is why a Mac renamed once can still announce its old name on the network.
Changing them
System Settings, General, About, and edit the Name field at the top.
Then System Settings, General, Sharing, and click the small Edit button under the local hostname to confirm it matches. If it is still the old name, change it here too.
From the Terminal, if you prefer to be certain all three are set:
sudo scutil --set ComputerName "Studio-Mini"
sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "Studio-Mini"
sudo scutil --set HostName "Studio-Mini"
ComputerName is the friendly one, LocalHostName the Bonjour name, and HostName the one used by the command line. Setting all three avoids the case where a shell prompt shows a name nothing else uses.
What to avoid
Your full name. The computer name is broadcast on every network you join, including hotel and cafe Wi-Fi. “Jonathan Whitfield’s MacBook Pro” tells a room full of strangers who you are and what you own.
Apostrophes and spaces. They work, and they produce awkward hostnames and occasional trouble with older network shares.
The model name. “MacBook Air” is what you are trying to get away from.
Anything you would not want read aloud. It appears in AirDrop prompts on other people’s screens.
What works
Short, distinctive, and neutral in public. A one-word name is ideal.
Rooms work well for desktops: study, kitchen, workshop. Roles work for laptops: travel, work, spare. Sequential names work if you replace machines regularly and want to know which is which in backups.
For a household with several Macs, a simple scheme beats cleverness. What you want, three years later, is to open Find My and know instantly which machine is which.
Where the name will follow you
Worth knowing, because renaming later means these all update at different speeds.
Time Machine stores backups under the machine name. Renaming a Mac creates what looks like a new backup set on the same drive, and the old one remains under the old name. Not harmful, and confusing if you are hunting for space.
Find My shows the current name and updates quickly.
Network shares may cache the old name on other machines for a while. Restarting the other machine clears it.
Screen sharing and remote access use the hostname, so a mismatch between the two names shows up here first.
For a machine you administer for someone else
If you set Macs up for a family or a small team, name them before handing them over, and use a scheme.
The reason is practical: when someone rings up with a problem, the first useful question is which machine, and “the silver one” is not an answer. A Mac handover checklist for a new employee covers the rest of that process.
Questions
Does renaming break anything? Rarely. Time Machine will start a new backup set, and network shares may need reconnecting. Nothing is lost.
Can I use emoji in the name? Technically yes. It produces a mangled hostname and confuses older systems. Not worth it.
Why does my Terminal prompt still show the old name?
HostName was not updated. Set it explicitly with scutil as above, then open a new Terminal window.
Does the name affect privacy? It is broadcast on local networks, so anyone on the same Wi-Fi can see it. That is the argument against using your full name, and it is the whole of the privacy consideration.