Your MacBook’s name serves as your computer’s ID. You need it to gain access to your computer and to its contents like when you log in to your Mac or you need to change a setting that requires administrative privileges. It’s also what people see when you connect your MacBook to a network. In some ways, it not only identifies your computer, it also represents who you are, so if your MacBook was accidentally given the wrong name or just a name that isn’t to your liking, you might find yourself wanting to change your MacBook’s name.

How to Change Your MacBook’s Name

If you want to change your MacBook’s name, perhaps because you’re using a secondhand MacBook that is still showing the name of the previous user, perhaps because you left the setting up process to the shop assistant from the store that you bought it from and they typed your name wrong, or you were in the mood to fool around when you were naming your MacBook and you gave it a silly or inappropriate name that you no longer wish to be associated with, you can change your MacBook’s name by editing your system preferences.

Before you go and change your MacBook’s name, though, there is an important thing that you need to know first.

Full Name vs. Short Name

When people talk about wanting to change their MacBook’s name, what they usually want to change is either the full name or the short name; however, sometimes, there are people who want to change both and some assume that they are one and the same. This can lead to some issues because there is actually a significant difference between the two.

The full name is equivalent to the user name and it’s the one that you see when you log in to your account. Changing your MacBook’s full name won’t have an effect on the way your computer works, so you can easily change it yourself or you can ask your computer administrator to do it for you if you do not have administrative privileges.

The short name, on the other hand, is equivalent to the account name and it’s the name that you and other people will see when you connect to a network. It also bears the same name as your home folder which contains all of your computer’s files, programs, preferred settings, and directories.

Because of this, the short name should always be the same as the name of the home folder for your computer to work properly. An error that occurred while you were changing your MacBook’s short name or account name can cause you to lose custom settings and access to your files, so it is NOT RECOMMENDED for users who are not used to tinkering with their machines.

How to Change Your MacBook’s Full Name or User Name

If you only want to change your MacBook’s full name or user name, you can easily do that by going through the following steps:

For Macs running on macOS Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite:

1. Go to the Apple menu
2. Open “System Preferences.”
3. Click on “Users & Groups.”
4. Click on the lock to make changes on your MacBook.
5. Type in your administrator name and password (If you don’t have an administrator account, you can ask your computer administrator to do this for you).
6. Go over the list of users.
7. Right-click on the name of the user that you want to change.
8. Select “Advanced Options”
9. Go to the “Full name” field and type in the name that you want.
10. Click on “OK.”

For Macs running on OS X Mavericks or an older operating system:

1. Go to the Apple menu
2. Open “System Preferences.”
3. Click on “Users & Groups.”
4. Go over the list of users.
5. Go to the “Full name” field and type in the name that you want.

How to Change Your MacBook’s Short Name or Account Name

IMPORTANT

As previously stated above, changing your MacBook’s account name to a name that is different from the name of the home folder can cause you to lose access to your files and custom settings, so, again, do NOT attempt to do this on your own if you are not willing to take the risk.

If you really wish to proceed, make sure you backup your files first so you won’t lose important data if something went wrong. You can use your MacBook’s built-in Time Machine for that or you can also create a bootable copy of your drive for additional backup.

For Macs running on macOS Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion

1. Log out of the account that the name of which you want to change.
2. If the account that the name of which you want to change is an administrator account, log in to another account with administrative privileges or create a new one.
3. Go to the “Users” folder of your startup disk (this contains the home folder of the account that you want to rename).
4. Change the name of the home folder and take note of both the old name and the new name (You might need the old name in case something went wrong and you had to search for your files or revert your account to its previous state).
5. Type in the administrator name and password when prompted.
6. Next, go to the Apple menu
7. Open “System Preferences.”
8. Click on “Users & Groups.”
9. Click on the lock icon to make changes to your computer.
10. Type in the administrator name and password.
11. Go over the list of users.
12. Right-click on the name of the user that you want to change.
13. Select “Advanced Options”
14. Go to the “Full name” field and type in the name that you want.
15. Click on “OK.”
16. Go to the field that says “Account name.”
17. Change it to the new name that you gave the home folder in the “Users” folder (Make sure that the account name or the home folder name does not contain any space. If it does, make sure you remove it so that you can edit the name).
18. Change the “Home directory” field to match the new name of your home folder in the “Users” folder.
19. Click on “OK.:
20. Close “System Preferences.”
21. Restart your Mac.
22. Log in to the renamed account and check if your old files and folders are still there and that everything is working properly.

And that should change your MacBook’s name. If you don’t feel comfortable with doing all of those yourself, you might want to visit the store where you bought your MacBook from to see if they can help you with it or you can also ask a friend who has more advanced knowledge of computers to help change it for you.

Good luck!