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Naming Zigbee devices logically in Zigbee2MQTT

Goodbye 0x00158d00… A fixed naming scheme based on room and device makes your automations, dashboards and voice commands readable.

Published
Reading time
3 min read
Level
Beginner
Tested on HA
2026.10
Lees in het Nederlands

Every new Zigbee device announces itself as 0x001788010645b9c8. You tell yourself you will tidy it up later, and three months on you are staring at an automation with four hex addresses in it and you no longer dare change anything. So rename immediately, and follow a fixed pattern while you do.

The pattern: room/device

Use a friendly name with a forward slash in Zigbee2MQTT:

woonkamer/plafondlamp
keuken/knop
slaapkamer/nachtkastje_links
tuin/schuur_bewegingssensor

Home Assistant turns that into tidy entities automatically, such as light.woonkamer_plafondlamp, and you get a readable tree structure in MQTT along with it.

Why Zigbee2MQTT first

The friendly name in Zigbee2MQTT determines the MQTT topic. Rename only in Home Assistant and that topic stays a hex address while your names drift apart: neat in the UI, unreadable the moment you look at MQTT. So rename in Zigbee2MQTT and tick Update Home Assistant entity ID.

Rules that keep it manageable

  • Room first, then the device. Your lists then sort themselves by room.
  • Fixed words for device types: knop, afstandsbediening, bewegingssensor, aanwezigheidssensor, stekker, deursensor. Pick one per type and never deviate.
  • Number duplicates: woonkamer/spot_1, _2.
  • No brand names, unless the brand genuinely matters. Swap a Hue bulb for an IKEA one and woonkamer/plafondlamp still holds, while woonkamer/hue_plafond does not.

Voice: aliases in two languages

For Assist you add aliases per entity, again with the room first: "Woonkamer plafondlamp" and "Living room ceiling light". Above all, add the synonyms people in the house actually use, like "kachel" alongside "verwarming" and "radiator". Your assistant is only as good as the words you give it.

Watch out when renaming

A new entity_id breaks every automation, script and dashboard that used the old name. So rename as early as you can, and afterwards search your configuration for the old IDs. Groups you once built around a single bulb can usually be thrown away once you have renamed. See also when to group lights.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use names with spaces? Better not. Spaces become underscores in entity IDs, and they are awkward in MQTT topics. Stick to lowercase, forward slashes and underscores.

What happens to my history when I rename? If you rename the entity ID through Zigbee2MQTT with the option ticked, Home Assistant carries your history across. Rename in two places independently and you risk losing it.

Should I set areas in Home Assistant as well? Yes, because a name and an area do different jobs. The name is for you; the area is for your dashboards and your voice commands. Do both.

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