How to Rename a Git Branch

Whenever you work on a new feature in Git, it may go through different name changes even as it gets deeper into development. It’s important to know how to rename a Git branch to keep things consistent. 

For example, you may be working on a feature named good-feature. As you work on it, an inspiration strikes and you decide to rename your feature as unicorn-feature. You’ll want to rename your feature branch from good-feature to unicorn-feature for consistency. However, you might already be deep into development and pushed quite a few changes to remote.

In this post, I will tell you:

1. How to rename a branch in your local Git repository.
2. How to rename the corresponding branch in remote.

More on GitHow to Undo the Last Commit Using Git Reset Command

How to Rename a Local Git Branch

The command is:

git branch --move <old-name> <new-name>

In our example, the command would be:

git branch --move good-feature unicorn-feature

More on GitHow to Fix the GitHub Error ‘Remote Host Identification Has Changed’

How to Rename a Git Branch in Remote

To rename the Git branch in remote, you simply treat the branch with the new name as a new branch and push the branch to remote.

git push --set-upstream origin <new-name>

In our case, the command would be:

git push --set-upstream origin unicorn-feature

This will create a new branch in our remote (origin) named unicorn-feature. However, the old branch still remains in remote. To verify, you can run the git branch --all to list all the branches - including the ones in remote. The next step, then, is to delete the old branch (good-feature) from remote.

If you need to delete an old branch, you’d enter:

git push <remoteName> --delete <gitReference>

And that’s everything you need to know about renaming a git branch.

Frequently Asked Questions