What is Property Name in Google Analytics?

Your Google Analytics “Property Name” is simply the human-readable label you assign to a property in your account. While this might sound basic, getting it right is crucial for keeping your analytics organized. This article will walk you through what a property name is, where to find it, and how to create a naming system that will save you from future headaches, especially as your business grows.

Understanding the Google Analytics Hierarchy

To fully grasp the "Property Name," you first need to understand where it fits within the structure of Google Analytics 4. All of your analytics data is organized into a three-level hierarchy:

1. Account
2. Property
3. Data Stream(s)

Think of it like a digital filing cabinet for your data. The entire cabinet is the Account. Inside that cabinet are individual folders, and each folder is a Property. Finally, the papers inside each folder are your Data Streams.

1. Account Level

The Account is the highest level of organization. Typically, a single business or an organization will have one main account. From here, you can manage:

• User access and permissions for your entire GA4 setup.
• Connections to other Google products like Google Ads.
• Billing information and organizational settings.
• How all your different websites and apps are grouped together.

For example, a marketing agency might have a single Google Analytics Account of its own, and inside that Account, they would have access to the accounts of their different clients. A single business, like a CPG brand, would have one main Account that contains the properties for its different websites or sub-brands.

2. Property Level

Nested within an Account are your Properties. A Property is a container for all the reports and data collected from a specific website, app, or logical grouping of both. Each property has a unique Measurement ID (formatted like G-XXXXXXXXXX) that is used in the tracking code.

A few common scenarios for creating separate properties include:

• You have completely separate websites, like brand-a.com and brand-b.com.
• You want to separate data for development/staging environments from your live production site.
• You manage distinct business units or franchise locations that require their own separate reporting.

Inside a property is where you configure settings like your reporting timezone, data retention, and how your conversions are defined. And, most importantly for this article, you give each of these properties a "Property Name" so you can tell them apart.

3. Data Stream Level

A Data Stream is the actual source of the data that flows into a property. Each property can have one or more data streams. The three types of data streams you can create are:

• Web: For a website (e.g., yourcompany.com).
• iOS: For an iOS mobile app.
• Android: For an Android mobile app.

So, if your business has a website, an iPhone app, and an Android app, you could have a single "My Awesome Business" property that contains three data streams — one for each platform. This allows you to analyze user journey and behavior across all your digital channels in one place.

So, What Exactly Is the Property Name?

The Property Name is the plain-text name you entered when you first created your property. It’s what you see in dropdown menus, administration screens, and report headers within Google Analytics. Its sole purpose is organizational clarity.

Property Name vs. Measurement ID

Don’t confuse the Property Name with the Measurement ID. They serve very different purposes:

• The Property Name is a human-readable label for identification purposes. You can change it anytime without affecting your data collection. It's for you and your team.
• The Measurement ID (e.g., G-123XYZ456) is the technical identifier that your website code uses to send data to the correct Google Analytics property. It's for Google's systems to use.

If you were to change your Measurement ID (for example, by creating a whole new property), your website would stop sending data to your old property instance unless you updated the tracking code on your site. Changing the Property Name, however, has no technical impact — it just re-labels the folder in your analytics filing cabinet.

Step-by-Step: How to Find Your GA4 Property Name

Not sure what your current property name is? It's easy to find. Just follow these steps:

1. Log in to Google Analytics.
2. Access the Admin Panel: Click on the gear icon labeled “Admin” in the bottom-left corner of your screen.
3. Locate the Property Column: On the Admin page, you will see two main columns: “Account” and “Property.” The name displayed at the top of the “Property” column is your current property’s name. If you have several, you can click the dropdown to see them all.

Alternate Method: The GA4 Header

You can also quickly see your Property Name and switch between properties by clicking the dropdown at the top-left of any Google Analytics screen. This will open a selector that shows every account and property you have access to.

How to Change Your GA4 Property Name

Made a mistake during setup or want to implement a better naming system? Changing your property name takes less than a minute. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to Admin Settings: Go to the "Admin" section just like in the previous steps.
2. Go to Property Settings: Make sure you have the correct property selected from the dropdown, then click on “Property Settings” under the “Property” column.
3. Edit and Save: The very first field on this page is the "Property name" field. Edit the name to your preferred new name and click the "Save" button in the top right corner. That's it! Your property is now renamed.

Best Practices for Naming GA4 Properties

Spending a few moments establishing a clear, consistent naming convention for your properties can prevent a lot of confusion down the road. This is especially true for marketing agencies managing multiple clients, businesses with multiple brands, or developers working in different environments.

1. Be Descriptive and Consistent

Your property name should instantly tell anyone on your team what website or app it tracks. Don't use vague labels.

• Bad Example: My Property
• Bad Example: GA4 Test 1
• Good Example: YourBrandWebsite.com - Live Production

2. Include the Domain Name or App Name

This is the single most important element. Immediately seeing the root domain makes it instantly clear what digital asset is being tracked. If it's a mobile app, use the app's full name.

• Example for a website: OakwoodLeather.com
• Example for an app: WordWeaver App - iOS

3. Clearly Label Scopes (if you have them)

Many larger businesses will create a single property to collect data from their web client, their iOS app, and their Android app to achieve unified, cross-platform audience measurement.

• Example for web only: Brand.com - Prod Web
• Example for website/apps together: Brand.com - Global (Web+IOS+Android)

4. Identify the Environment

You should never send your test data to the same property where you collect your real, production-level user data. This pollutes your live dataset and can lead to flawed business decisions. To avoid this, and mix-ups in reporting, create separate properties for your development, staging, and production environments and label them clearly.

• YourSite.com - Live
• staging.YourSite.com - Staging
• YourSite.local - Dev

Using a consistent prefix or suffix like [Live] or -Dev makes them easy to distinguish at a glance.

5. Consider Your Team and How Names Will Sort

Keep in mind that Google Analytics sorts your properties alphabetically. If your brand owns multiple web properties, consider standardizing the nomenclature so they all group up neatly and appear next to one another consistently in the alphabetical list of properties — especially if they are all hosted on the same Google Analytics Account. If you're an agency, preceding the client's property/app name with something consistent could be helpful in organizing them according to your book of business in your GA Admin panel as well.

Final Thoughts

While the Property Name in Google Analytics may seem like a minor detail, it’s the cornerstone of a clean and manageable analytics setup. It acts as a clear signpost, ensuring you and your team are always looking at the right data without having to decipher cryptic labels or Measurement IDs. Adopting a descriptive, consistent naming convention is a simple but powerful step towards confident data analysis.

Of course, organizing your data sources is just the first step. The real goal is to get fast, actionable insights without spending hours wrestling with reports. That's why we built Graphed. We connect directly to your data sources like Google Analytics, so you can stop manually exporting data and start creating real-time dashboards and reports simply by asking questions in plain English. For example, just ask, "Show me traffic conversion rate and Shopify sales by channel for the last 30 days," and our AI data analyst builds the report for you instantly.