This tip comes via OS X Daily, one of Cult of Mac’s favorite tips sites. Check them out for more great tips!
Ever wish your dull, boring first/last name combination username was just a bit more awesome? Yeah, so do we. Here’s a quick tip on how to change it, Captain Awesomepants.
Let’s begin by logging into our Mac, and opening System Preferences, either from the Dock or the Applications folder. Once there, click on Users & Groups. If the lock icon in the lower left is “locked,” you’ll have to click it and type in your account password to make any changes here. If you don’t, you’ll be asked to type in your password when you go to change your login name.
Look to the left of the Users & Groups preference pane, and select the account you want to change the name for. On the right, type in the new login name you’ve chosen in the Full Name field, after you’ve clicked into it and deleted the old name. Go ahead and quit System Preferences. You may want to re-lock the security icon in the lower left again, or not, it’s up to you.
To confirm the changes, log out of your account, either in the Apple menu or by hitting Shift-Command-Q and clicking the Log Out button that appears. If you have your login window set to List of Users in the Login Options section of the preference pane, you’ll see your new name and User icon in the resulting screen. Congrats!
These shenanigans don’t affect the short user name of your account (used for the home directory name and any SSH logins), so you can rest assured it’s purely cosmetic. And awesome.
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