Guide
Install it, name your desktops, and switch between them from the menu bar. No permissions to grant and nothing in macOS to change.
Unzip the download, drag SpaceNamer into your Applications folder and open it. The build is signed and notarized by Apple, so there are no warnings and no right-click tricks.
SpaceNamer has no Dock icon and no main window — it lives entirely in the menu bar. On first
launch it shows your current desktop’s default name, like Desktop 1.
Click the menu bar item and choose Rename Spaces…. Each desktop gets a row: type a name, then click the emoji box and pick one from the macOS Emoji & Symbols palette.
The menu bar updates as you type. Click Done when you are finished — there is nothing to save.
Open the menu and click any desktop’s name. macOS performs its own animated switch, exactly as though you had swiped there yourself.
Turn on Launch at Login from the menu so your names are there after every restart.
One thing to do after each launch: visit each desktop once — swipe across them, or press
Control and the arrow keys. SpaceNamer learns where a desktop is the first time you visit it
after launching, and until then that desktop is listed but not clickable. This is the price of using only
public macOS APIs instead of asking for the Accessibility permission.
macOS gives every display its own set of desktops, so SpaceNamer does too. The menu groups desktops under each display’s name, with a checkmark on the one that is active on that display. The menu bar itself shows the desktop on the display you are currently working in.
Both appear together, so a glance tells you where you are. Either one on its own works fine too.
Names longer than 20 characters are truncated in the menu bar. The full name stays in the menu.
It is a single menu bar item and works alongside menu bar managers such as Bartender.
One purchase covers 3 Macs. Enter your key under License… in the menu. Moving to a new machine? Open that menu on the old Mac and remove the license to free the seat, or do it from the customer portal. Full details are on the support page.
Start with troubleshooting. The two most common cases: a desktop you have not visited since launching is not clickable yet, and Mission Control rendering oddly is fixed by logging out and back in.
One purchase, three Macs, no permissions, 30 days to change your mind.