How to rename desktops on a Mac

What macOS gives you

Open Mission Control (⌃↑, F3, or a three-finger swipe up) and the row along the top shows every desktop as Desktop 1, Desktop 2, Desktop 3. Apple’s own guide calls that row the Spaces bar and never mentions renaming, because there is nothing to mention: no field, no right-click, no Terminal default. That is still true in macOS 26 Tahoe, and the macOS 27 Golden Gate betas add nothing here either.

Fullscreen apps are the exception. A fullscreen or Split View space is labelled with the app’s name, which is why people who live in fullscreen windows notice the problem less.

Without an app

1. A different wallpaper per desktop. Right-click the desktop, choose Change Wallpaper, and pick something you will recognise in a thumbnail. Mission Control shows the wallpaper in each preview, so a colour per desktop is the cheapest fix there is.
2. Keep the order fixed. System Settings → Desktop & Dock → turn off “Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use”. The numbers then stay put, and ⌃1 to ⌃9 (once enabled under Keyboard → Shortcuts → Mission Control) always land on the same desktop.
3. One app per desktop. Right-click an app in the Dock → Options → This Desktop. The app icons in Mission Control then tell the desktops apart, and the Dock will send you to the right one.

All three work, and none of them gives you a word. If you want to read Code, Mail or Deep Work in the Spaces bar, you need an app.

With an app

The apps split into two groups: the ones that show a name in the menu bar, and the few that show it inside Mission Control. Two of the Mission Control group need System Integrity Protection turned off, which no current Mac should do. Checked 7 September 2026.

Renaming a desktop with Doorplate

1. Install Doorplate, open it, and grant Accessibility once when it asks. That is the only permission.
2. Click the tile in the menu bar. Every desktop is listed; click the pencil on any of them, or press ⌘, for Settings → Spaces to rename them all in one place.
3. Type the name, pick an icon (an SF Symbol, an emoji, or your own picture) and a color. The name is saved a moment after you stop typing.
4. Open Mission Control. The name sits where “Desktop N” was, in the color you chose, and moves with the row.

From then on the same name appears in the menu bar, in the Quick Switcher (⌃⌥Space), in the hover strip at the top edge of the screen, in the tag that appears when you land on the desktop and, on a MacBook with a camera notch, flush against the notch if you turn that on. Rename it from any of those places and the others follow.

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