Names for your Spaces, everywhere you look
macOS calls every Space "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2" and so on, and has no setting to rename them. Spacepal lets you give each Space a name, an icon, a colour and a note, and shows that name in the menu bar, in its overview, in a short on-screen label when you switch, and on top of Mission Control's own "Desktop N" labels. It works without turning off System Integrity Protection.
How the Mission Control names work
Apple offers no interface for renaming the labels in Mission Control. While Mission Control is open, though, macOS exposes its Spaces bar to Accessibility, including where each label sits. Spacepal watches for that bar and draws a small pill with your name, icon and colour exactly over the native label, on every display. When Mission Control closes, the pills disappear.
This needs Accessibility permission (see Setup) and can be turned off with "Show names in Mission Control" in Settings, General. Because it follows macOS's own layout, a future macOS release can change how it looks; the Terms explain how we handle that.
Ways to name a Space
- When you create it. Spacepal asks "Name this new Space?" whenever a new desktop appears. You can turn the question off.
- In the overview. Double-click a name, or right-click and choose Rename.
- In Settings, Spaces. Each Space has an editor with name, note, category, icon, colour, custom icon image and automations.
- From the menu bar. "Note, Icon and Automation…" opens the editor for the current Space.
- From scripts.
spacepal://rename/current?name=Designortell application "Spacepal" to rename space 3 to "Design". See URL scheme and AppleScript. - Automatically. "Name unnamed Spaces after their main app" gives a Space the name of the app that dominates it until you choose your own.
Names that stay put
Names are tied to each Space's identity, not to its position. Two things matter for that:
- Turn off Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use in System Settings, Desktop & Dock, or macOS keeps reordering your Spaces. Settings, Setup in Spacepal checks this for you in the direct version.
- Full screen app Spaces are named after the app, and a name you give one is remembered for the next time that app goes full screen.
If names ever appear on the wrong desktops, the troubleshooting section covers the fix.
Where the names show up
| Place | What you see |
|---|---|
| Menu bar | The current Space's name, or number, number and name, icon only, or a strip of all Spaces as numbers or dots |
| When switching | A short label with the name, at the top, centre or bottom, in three sizes; optionally a sound or the name spoken aloud |
| Overview | Name, icon, colour and note on each preview |
| Mission Control | Your name drawn over each "Desktop N" label |
| Desktop | Optional large name on the desktop itself, behind every window |
| Floating toolbar | Optional row of Spaces on each display |
Notes, categories and icons
A note is one line under the name, such as "Invoice due Friday". For longer notes, "Open Notes File" creates a Markdown file for that Space and opens it in your editor. Categories group Spaces in the overview and the menu. Icons come from a built-in set of symbols, or you can choose your own image.
Profiles and backup
Save the whole set of names, colours, notes and automations as a profile such as Work or Home, and switch between them from the menu or with spacepal://profile/Work. Settings, Backup exports and imports your names and settings as a file.
Availability
Names work in both versions. In the Mac App Store version the setup checklist cannot read the Dock's "rearrange Spaces" setting, so check it yourself. After the 14-day trial, names, icons and the menu bar keep working; the overview and the Mission Control labels need a license (one-time purchase).
Related
Written by Dan Bayer, developer of Spacepal. Last updated 2026-10-27.