For most people if you want to change your Mac computer name you just do it through the Sharing system preference, it’s quick and very easy. For those of us that are more geekishly inclined, we like to do things through the Terminal.

Here’s how to change your Mac hostname with the command line and make it permanent:

Simply replace new_hostname with whatever you want your hostname to be changed to, for example I want to change my Mac’s hostname to MacBookPro, I will use this command:

You will be asked for your admin password since you’re using the sudo command. After the command is executed you can verify that the changes took place by typing:

You can also set a temporary hostname change by using the following command:

This will reset itself after your Mac reboots though, so if you want a permanent hostname change, use the above command instead.