Note: I got about 95% finished with this post when I realized it should be on the Xcode Tools Tips page. Because I was almost finished, I decided to also post it on the blog.

When you create an Xcode project, Xcode uses the project name as the title of whatever it builds. If you create an Xcode application project named MyProject, Xcode will create an application named MyProject when you build the project.

Suppose you’re working on your application for a few weeks when you discover the perfect name for your application. You change the name of your project from MyProject to PerfectName, clean your project, and rebuild it. You expect to find an application named PerfectName in your build folder, but the application is still called MyProject. How do you get Xcode to build the project so the application name is PerfectName?

The answer is to modify the Product Name build setting, which you can find in the Packaging build settings collection. Product Name is the name of what Xcode builds, such as an application, a framework, or a library. Xcode initially uses the project name as the product name so when you look at the Product Name build setting, it will most likely be blank. Change the value of the Product Name to what you want, which would be PerfectName in this ongoing example.

When you change the Product Name build setting, you’ll want to change it for the target, not a single build configuration. Changing the Product Name build setting for the target makes sure the change takes effect for all build configurations.