The Mac can be a very personal device, and like an iPhone or iPad, its name can be changed whether it’s a MacBook, iMac, or Mac mini. By default, your Mac’s name will be “Mac of …” or “MacBook of …” and the username you have in your Apple ID, but this name can be changed at any time, just like the macOS username.
Rename your Mac I could make sense on a number of occasions, if you want to access it remotely or if you want to send something by AirDrop, the name that will appear will be whatever you gave it.
You might also want to do something change the username with which you log in in macOS. It’s a bit more complicated but it can also be done. Let’s see how you can change your Mac’s name and session in minutes.
Where can I change the name of my Mac?
The truth is, the steps to change the name of a Mac are pretty straightforward, you just need to know where to look. Rename a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMad, or any other Mac this is done as follows:
- Enter System Preferences. You can do this from the Dock icon, by clicking on the apple above, or from the Launchpad where all apps are controlled.
- In System Preferences, enter Share, it has a folder icon.
- The top appears Computer name, type the name you want to give your Mac.
Remember that you can put any name, you don’t have to say “MacBook by …” or “iMac by …”, you can call it whatever you want. Once you’re done, click the back icon at the top left.
How to change your username on a Mac
Changing your macOS username means change the name of your session. On Mac, we can have several sessions with different users if there are several of us using the computer.
If you want to know what is your username on Mac, you should know that is the one that appears when you turn on the computer, before entering your connection password.
This name can also be changed, but you must be the administrator of the Mac. For that, proceed as following:
- As before, enter System Preferences as you prefer.
- Now enter the section Users and groups.
- At the bottom left you will see a padlock, you have to click on it.
- Enter the password from the system administrator.
- In the list of users on the left, tap the right click on the username you want to change.
- Press on Advanced options.
- Change the macOS username to where it is shown Full Name.
- Press on Accept.
You should be aware that this change could damage the account, Apple warns us in this window. We don’t really know what the reason is, but it does happen on some occasions. However, the normal thing is that nothing changes the username of a session in macOS. Your Mac will restart and the session name will have changed.
How to put my name on the Mac toolbar
It exists a little trick to make your macOS username appear in the menu bar It’s a quick way to tell which session is started, in fact by tapping you can quickly switch between sessions. Here’s how you can do it:
- As always, the first thing is to enter System Preferences.
- Enter Dock and menu bar.
- In the left area, it goes down to Fast user switching.
- active Display in menu bar.
- Now return to the main menu System Preferences.
- Enter Users and groups.
- Click on the Padlock below, enter the password and click on Boot options.
- In Show user quick change menu as, click on the drop-down menu and on Full Name.
I hope that with these steps you were able customize your Mac a little more change your name or username to log in. Moreover, with this trick, you can put it in the menu bar.
