Drives have different names...

The problem of renaming the macOS boot volumes is due to how macOS 10.15+ deals with the new read-only system volume and how Apple has macOS trying to make them appear as a single traditional volume to the user within the Finder. Unfortunately each version of macOS 10.15, 11.x, and 12.x uses different behind the scenes "magic" to make this appear seemless to the user. Unfortunately macOS 12.x (and perhaps even 11.x) make this even more difficult by hiding the behind the scenes "magic" and links even from the command line utilities which usually reveal everything. With macOS 10.15 Catalina Apple it was possible to modify the base name of one of the "boot" volumes and it would automatically change the base name of the other "linked" volume, but unfortunately Apple seems to have removed this ability with later versions of macOS (I think even a later patch to Catalina as well). Unfortunately renaming the "drive" name from the Finder does not automatically change the base name for the other linked volume (or if later versions of macOS can do this, then it may be break at times).

Now to the other part of the problem which still needs to be solved. Since the latest screenshots from Disk Utility show all your system/data volumes are now correctly named as a set, it must mean the drive label which is used by the Apple boot picker menu was not modified when you modified the boot volume name(s). The drive label is actually a specially formatted image file that is hidden somewhere on a macOS boot volume.

On older versions of macOS this would have been a simpler fix due to the single volume used by older versions of macOS. Also, the command line utility used to do this has been deprecated by Apple for years so I have no idea if it would even with any macOS 10.15+ boot volumes. Plus I've never had to change the label of a macOS boot volume before so I'm not certain how to do it with the command anyway. Experimenting may be dangerous and could potentially make that OS volume (or another one) unbootable.

I have created custom boot labels for external volumes for non-macOS boot volumes since I understood how the non-macOS boot volumes worked and could risk the dangers of experimentation. Unfortunately there is very little information about how to make this change to a macOS boot volume (especially with macOS 10.15+). I did locate one thread on a non-Apple forum which included a command (along with a few others to change other options), but I hesitate to include the command here since I don't know what will happen to the OS if it is used incorrectly and I'm not certain the suggested command was even successful for the user. Plus it also requires the user to understand the command line in order to be able confirm the exact mount point required since you have multiple volumes on your drive which complicates things.

A better and easier option would be for you to use the rEFInd boot manager (may be an Intel only option -- I don't know if it has been updated to work with M1 Macs). rEFInd allows you to custom the item names which appear within the rEFInd boot manager for the various boot volumes on your Mac.

I believe you have to change the name in each operating system. If you only have it in one, it may not transfer to the others. In which case in each operating systems using disk utilities and the right click you change the names It should also be able to be done at desktop in each operating system by the right click on the drive icon.

Imagine wrote:

HWTech, thank you for all the info. Just to be clear, if I were to use rEFInd, would that solve the issue I'm having?

It won't change the Option Boot labels. If you use rEFInd to boot the Mac, then you can customize the names appearing on rEFInd's menus. You can create a bootable rEFInd USB stick to see how it will look before "installing" rEFInd to the Mac (even then rEFInd is just a special folder & files located on the hidden EFI/ESP partition).

Also, I renamed the Data name on 2 drives in Disk Utility. Will that cause any problems?

Just make sure to leave the " - Data" portion untouched. I have never removed the " - Data" portion so I don't know what affect that will have on things. It is safe to edit the base name which appears before the " - Data" portion though.

Try using Disk Utility to rename the volumes while booted into the OS for that particular volume. Perhaps that will correct the Option Boot labels. You could also try reinstalling macOS over top of itself which may correct the incorrect Option Boot labels.

I was doing a little research and was able to locate the hidden files for the Option Boot menu labels, but I don't know how this works since there are two copies (one on the read-only system volume and one on the read+write volume), but I don't know if the one on the read+write volume is enough to change the Option Boot label. I may see if I can do an experiment with a Mac I'm repairing which needs to have macOS reinstalled anyway, but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time.

Try this. Go to recovery and open disk utilities. If necessary go to view at the top and click show all devices. The right click on whatever one you need to rename. using the rename option.

Did you ever have Big Sur on your device? I think you still need to use disk utilities from recovery, But you may have to alter the name slightly. Say Monetary -1 or something like that as it may see Monterey as already there.

Did you do this in recovery or in disk utilities home desktop volume? If you do it in recovery disk utilities it should change it.

Imagine wrote:

Hi, I booted up my Mac Pro with the Option key pressed down. I have 3 drives that appear, but all have a different name than the ones on my desktop.

The names on my desktop are correct. How do I change the names when I boot up with the Option key?

Thanks!

What are you trying to accomplish...

If in doubt you can reboot as normal without the Option key...

Mac startup key combinations

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

>System Preferences>Startup Disk for your default.

If you still need help — maybe a screen shot of three choices you are seeing

You do not say what exact Mac this is...

About Startup Security Utility on a Mac with the Apple T2 ...

Imagine wrote:

leroydouglas, I'm beta testing certain software and going between 3 different drives, each having different macOS's.

I have a 2019 Mac Pro 24 core with 224GB of ram running Monterey 12.2.1. Thanks

So this is an old issue, a new issue..? What changed?

If no insight or resolve, can you not arrange the drives in your preferred order on the Desktop...no matter the name?

Have you tried relaunching the Finder on the fly(?) >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch

Have you tried rebooting

I am able to switch between versions of macOS but with a different configuration (see below). I use the Startup Disk System Preference to select a version of macOS. Using the Option key to launch the Startup Manager should also work.

OK. Your internal drive is Monterey and you have an external drive with Catalina and Big Sur. Correct? So I'm wondering if you have to boot recovery to the external drives and change the names in there. This is getting interesting. I thought This was all on your internal drive. Do you show recovery drive options for the external drives when using the option key at boot.

I see. I do remember a naming problem that I once had with a bootable optical disc. If I recall correctly, the disc volume name wasn't the same as the name appearing in the Startup Manager. I didn't investigate further since I could easily distinguish between the different startup volumes.