Rename your Mac

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Learn how to find the name of your Mac and rename it for when you are on a network.

Did you know that your Mac has a name? This name is what is being shared when you are on a network. In this video, I show you how you can find out what that name is and how you can change it on your Mac.

Video Transcript (video also has closed captions):

In this video, we’re going to look at how we can find the name of our computer, is our Mac is, as well as how we can change it. Let’s go to my Mac.

Now you may not know this, but your Mac has a name. And if you are on a network, this name is broadcast to all of the other computers on the network. As an example, let’s go over to my Finder. I have an iMac on my network. If I go over to my network here, you’re going to see I have Dan’s iMac. That is the name of that computer. If I were to double click on this, what I’d be able to do is connect to it.

So how did it get that name? Dan’s iMac. And what is the name of my current computer? My MacBook Pro 16 inch here. Well, you can find its name in the System Preferences, and that’s also where we can change it. I’m going to close this, and then we go up to our Apple menu, and we go over to System Preferences. From here, what we need to do is go to Sharing. When I click on Sharing, up at the top, you’re going to see the name. So this is the name of this computer, this MacBook Pro that I am on. If there were other people on my network, or if I go to that other iMac that’s on my network, this is the name that this computer is going to show. If I wanted to connect to this computer, I would click on this name, Dan’s 2019 MacBook Pro.

To change it, all we have to do is just click here and start typing, and we can change the name. Once you change the name, you just close the window, and now your computer has a new name on the network. That’s pretty much all there is to name your computer. When you name your computer, this is the name that will be shown on the network. So our, the computers can connect up to it by clicking on that name.

To find out what your computer name is and change it, you just go to your System Preferences and then go to Sharing. From there, you’re going to see your name, just click in there and change the name, and that new name will be broadcast on your network.

So that’s how you can see what your computer’s name is and change it on the Mac.

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