macnames - Get or set all macOS device names at once

Your Mac has three different system names:

1. ComputerName — The user-friendly name shown in the Finder and System Settings.
2. LocalHostName — The Bonjour name (e.g. MacBook-Pro.local).
3. HostName — The low-level system name used in hostname(1) and in terminal prompts.

This shell script allows you to get or set all three names at once using scutil.

Usage

Show current names (no install required)

curl -fsSL https://github.com/bjoernalbers/macnames/releases/latest/download/macnames \
    | sh -s

Sample output:

ComputerName:   Mac42
LocalHostName:  Mac42
HostName:       -

Set all names (requires sudo)

curl -fsSL https://github.com/bjoernalbers/macnames/releases/latest/download/macnames \
    | sudo sh -s -- "Mac3000"

This will set all three system names to "Mac3000".

About Naming

• HostName and LocalHostName must follow stricter rules (no spaces, no umlauts, ASCII only).
• The script will validate the name before applying changes.
• If HostName is not set, it will show "-" in the output (in this case macOS defaults to "Mac" in your Terminal prompt).

Security

The script macnames is a single POSIX-compliant file. To review before execution:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/bjoernalbers/macnames/releases/latest/download/macnames