codza

The OS X registration process can come up with some pretty stupid computer names like chuck johnson’s macbook. This will show up in the Terminal, on the network and it has a freaking single quote and spaces in it ?!

Here’s how to rename it to something that makes sense, like pink.

Open System Preferences and click on Sharing in the Internet&Network section:

System Preferences / Sharing

Change the Coumputer Name field:

Computer Name

Click on the Edit button right below the Computer Name field and make sure the name you entered propagated here. You want to see something like pink.local:

Computer Name Edit

Last but not least, you should also change the host name (the system name of your machine). To do this, fire up Terminal (spotlight will find this for you) and type this command replacing pink with your name choice (you will also have to type your admin password):

sudo scutil --set HostName pink.local

Enjoy your now sanely named mac!

Filed under:
apple, mac by lajos