Renaming a device in Home Assistant takes two minutes and requires no coding

Open Home Assistant on your phone or computer, find the device in Settings > Devices and Services, select it, and click the pencil icon next to its name. Type the new name and save. The change takes effect immediately across your automations, dashboards, and voice commands.

The exact steps depend on whether you are renaming the device itself or just the entity (the individual sensor or switch within it). Most people rename the device — the physical thing — which updates all its parts at once. If you need to rename only one sensor or switch, that is a separate process in the same menu.

Key Takeaways

  • Device names in Home Assistant change in Settings > Devices and Services, not in the integration that added the device.
  • Renaming a device updates all its entities automatically, so automations and voice commands using that device will still work.
  • Entity names (individual sensors or switches) can be renamed separately if you want to change only one part of a device.
  • The name you choose appears in dashboards, automations, and voice assistant commands, so pick something you will recognize in a year.

Where to find the device name setting

Go to Settings in the left sidebar, then Devices and Services. You will see a list of all your devices grouped by integration — Philips Hue, MQTT, Z-Wave, and so on. Find the device you want to rename and click on it.

The device detail page shows all the sensors and switches that device controls. At the top, next to the device name, is a small pencil icon. Click that icon to edit the name. Type your new name and press Enter or click outside the field to save. Home Assistant will confirm the change with a brief notification at the bottom of the screen.

What happens when you rename a device

Home Assistant updates the device name everywhere it appears — in automations, scenes, dashboards, and voice commands. If you have an automation that says "turn on living room light," and you rename that light device, the automation still works without any changes from you.

The internal ID of the device stays the same, so Home Assistant knows it is the same physical thing. Only the human-readable name changes. This is different from deleting and re-adding the device, which would break automations and require you to rebuild them from scratch.

Renaming individual entities instead of the whole device

Sometimes you want to rename just one sensor or switch on a device, not the whole device. For example, a smart plug might have both a power switch and a power consumption sensor, and you might want to call them different things.

In the same device detail page, scroll down to the Entities section. Find the entity you want to rename, click the three dots next to it, and select Rename. Type the new name and save. This changes only that one entity, not the device itself. Entity-level renaming is useful when a device has multiple functions and you want to distinguish them in your automations.

Naming conventions that work well with voice commands

If you use voice commands with Alexa, Google Home, or Home Assistant's built-in voice assistant, choose names that are easy to say and specific enough to avoid confusion. "Living room light" works better than "light 1" or "Philips Hue Color A19." Avoid numbers at the start of names, as some voice assistants struggle with them.

For devices in the same room, add the room name to the device name: "kitchen counter light," "kitchen table light," "kitchen sink light." This makes voice commands clearer and helps you find devices faster in the dashboard. Consistency matters — if you name one light "bedroom lamp," do not name another "bedroom light" unless they are actually different things.

Renaming devices added through YAML configuration

If you added a device by editing the configuration.yaml file directly, you may need to rename it in that file instead of through the UI. Check the integration's documentation to see whether it supports UI renaming. Most modern integrations do, but some older or custom ones may not.

If the UI rename does not work, open configuration.yaml in your text editor, find the device entry, and change the name field. Save the file and restart Home Assistant. The change will appear in the UI after the restart. You can verify the restart completed by checking the timestamp in the bottom left corner of the Home Assistant interface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will renaming a device break my automations?

No. Home Assistant uses the device's internal ID to run automations, not the name. You can rename a device as many times as you want without affecting any automations, scenes, or scripts that use it.

Can I rename a device that is offline?

Yes. The name change happens in Home Assistant's database, not on the device itself. You can rename an offline device, and the new name will be active the next time the device comes back online.

What if I rename a device and then add it again?

Home Assistant will treat it as a new device and give it a new internal ID. Your old automations will still reference the old device. To avoid this, do not remove and re-add a device if you can rename it instead.

Can I use special characters or spaces in device names?

Yes, Home Assistant accepts spaces, hyphens, and most special characters in device names. Avoid very long names (over 50 characters) because they may not display well on small screens or in voice command interfaces.