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This article will show you how to Change Username on Mac. When you first set up your Mac user account, you probably didn’t change the short name (also called the username) that was given to you automatically. Now that you think about it, you might want to change it to something more specific. But how could that be? Yes, you can change your macOS username, which is good news.
The bad news is that it’s hard to do, you need a different account with management rights, and if you do it wrong, it could damage your user account. The account name and the Home folder are two places on your Mac where your name or another name might show up. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Apple Support site.
The name that shows up is based on the Full Name you gave when you set up the account. Changing the username on your Mac account is easy once you know how to do it. This is true whether you just got married and got a new last name, you want to use a different name for your computer account, or you bought a used laptop that hasn’t been wiped clean.
Ways to Change Username on Mac
Rename Your Home Folder
For your account to work, the name of your user account and your home folder must be the same. The first step is to change the name of your home folder.
- From the Apple menu, select Log Out UserName (where UserName is the name of the account you want to change).
- From the login screen, sign in to a different or new administrator account.
- From the Finder menu, select Go > Go to Folder, type /Users, and then choose Go to navigate to your home folder.
- Select the home folder to rename and press Enter to edit it.
- Type the new name (without spaces) you want to use for your home folder, press Enter, and use the administrator password you used to log in when prompted.
- Write down the name of the new home folder to reference when renaming your account.
Rename Your Account
After you change the name of the home folder, don’t sign in to the account you’re changing. Instead, do the steps below.
- From the Apple menu, select System Preferences > Users & Groups.
- In Users & Groups, select the lock icon and type the password for your spare administrator account.
- In the list of users, Control+click the user account name you want to change and select Advanced Options.
- In the Account name field, type the name of the new home folder you created and select OK.
- Close all open windows and dialog boxes and restart your Mac.
- Sign in to the account you renamed and verify that you can see and access all your files and folders.
Every Mac has at least one user account, which could be yours or an account you made for someone else. You might want to change the name of one of your user accounts at some point. We’ll show you how to change the user name of any account on your Mac. It doesn’t matter if the account is an administrator or a normal user. Changing the name of a user account won’t hurt the account in any way. It won’t change what’s loaded on the account or delete anything from the account.