How to Change Your Mac's Name

When you first set up yourMac, Apple will automatically assign it a name.These names all follow an established pattern, your name might be called "Mary's"MacBook Pro" or "John's MacBook Air" or something.

While you might not realize it, it's possible to change the name to whatever you want.This is easy to do, but the necessary system settings are not so easy to find.Let's take a closer look at where it is and how to change it.

Why your Mac's name matters

Your computer name is most often used for networking and sharing.For example, if you share a file with other users over the local network, they will see your computer name on their own machine.

Likewise, if you want to use AirPlay (or one of the many Airplay alternatives) to send files or cast videos to your Mac, you'll need to know your Mac's name in order to send the data to the correct machine.

Therefore, you need your Mac to be recognized quickly and easily.If you have two or more machines on your network with similar names, maybe it would make more sense to rename them "Office Desktop", "Lounge Laptop", and "Shirley's Workstation".

How to Change Your Mac's Name

To change the name of your Mac, follow these simple steps:

1. Click the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the desktop and select System Preferences from the drop-down menu.

2. Find the "Share" icon and tap it.

3. At the top of the window, click your Mac's current name and press the delete key to delete it.

4. Now, enter your new name and close the Share window to apply your changes.

Remember, changing your Mac's name will also change its local network address.Therefore, any external applications and devices using this address will no longer work.You will need to spend time pointing them both to the new address.

Effortlessly change the name of your Mac

Apple makes it easy for you to change the name of your Mac.It's a fairly straightforward process, except that you'll need to update the local network address your external device uses to connect to your Mac.