Microsoft Teams Naming Conventions – Best Practices for clear Team Names

Does this sound familiar? You’re looking for a specific team in the list, but you can’t find it because it’s called “Project 3” or “Test-2022-new-final”? This is exactly where Microsoft Teams naming conventions come into play.

This article provides you with concrete best practices for Microsoft Teams naming conventions with practical examples. You’ll learn why consistent team names are important and how to implement clear rules to improve the structure of your teams.

Tip: Want to not only define naming conventions, but also enforce them technically? Teams Manager helps you do this – automatically and integrated with M365.

What are the Benefits of clear Naming Conventions in Microsoft Teams?

• Find teams faster: Unique, consistent team names help you and your colleagues quickly find the right team in the list.
• Avoid duplicates: Clear naming rules prevent you from accidentally creating redundant or duplicate teams.
• Create clarity: The purpose of each team is immediately apparent from its name, which promotes a clean environment and more efficient collaboration.

The 10 most important Microsoft Teams Naming Conventions Best Practices with Practical Examples

1. Use a consistent scheme

Establish a consistent pattern. The following pattern has become established: [Department]_[Project]_[Topic].

Example: Marketing_Website_Relaunch

2. Keep team names short

• Use concise names, ideally less than 30 characters, so that you can read the names completely in the sidebar and they are not truncated.
• Note the technical limitation of 30-36 characters depending on upper/lower case.

3. Use prefixes

Use fixed abbreviations to identify team types.

Examples of functional prefixes:

• DEPT_ for department teams (e.g., “DEPT_Marketing_Campaigns”)
• P_ for project teams (e.g., “P_Website_Relaunch_2024”)
• WG_ for working groups (e.g., “WG_Digitization”)

4. Use suffixes

Use a suffix in your team name for additional context.

• Regional identifiers: _DE, _EU, _APAC
• Status indicators: _ACTIVE, _ARCHIVE, _TEMP
• Priorities: _P1, _P2, _P3

5. Avoid special characters or emojis

Avoid characters such as # % & / \ ? * : < > | – , as they can cause technical problems (e.g., in SharePoint URLs) and make searching difficult. Stick to letters, numbers, and hyphens or underscores as separators.

6. Ensure uniqueness

Choose names that are unique. If necessary, add the location, year, or department to clearly distinguish similar teams from each other.

Example: Sales_DACH_Q1_2024

7. Use terms and abbreviations consistently

Define company-wide abbreviations (e.g., HR for Human Resources) and stick to them across all teams. This prevents confusion caused by different spellings and increases recognizability.

8. Review your naming conventions regularly

Check every few months to see if the conventions still fit the company and if they are being followed. Adjust naming conventions if company structures or needs change.

9. Use naming conventions for channels and OneNotes as well

Channels should also be clearly named. Use special naming conventions for different channel types.

Examples:

• Projects: Project: [project name] or Proj: [name]
• Temporary topics: Temp-[problem description]
• Working groups: WG: [working group name]
• Teams: Team: [team name]
• Archived channels: ARCHIVED-[original name]

When creating OneNotes, we recommend this pattern [Team name]_Notes.

Example: DEPT_Marketing_Campaigns_Notes

10. Avoid common mistakes

Avoid these common mistakes:

• Names that are too creative: Avoid cryptic or playful names.
• Inconsistency: Use rules uniformly and consistently.
• Missing context information: Make sure that the purpose is always clear.
• Duplicate teams: Prevent duplicate teams by using clear names.

What are good and bad Examples of Team Names?

Good example: Marketing_Website_Relaunch2024

Contains department, project, and year. Everyone immediately understands what it is about and which team is meant.

Bad example: Website Project

No reference to the department or year. It is unclear which area the team belongs to and it is easy to confuse with other projects.

Good example: IT Support_Windows11Rollout

Uses a prefix (IT Support) for the team type and clearly describes the topic (Windows 11 rollout).

Bad example: New Team 3

Does not say anything about the purpose or team affiliation. Such generic names lead to chaos because no one can guess the content.

How do I enforce Naming Conventions in Teams company-wide?

As an administrator, you can set up a Microsoft 365 naming policy in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). This automatically appends certain prefixes/suffixes (e.g., department identifiers) to new team names and blocks unwanted words.

The Microsoft 365 naming policy consists of two main features:

• Prefix-suffix policy: Defines the naming convention with fixed strings or user attributes
• Blocked words: Upload a CSV file with unwanted terms

However, Teams Manager makes this even more convenient and flexible. This governance tool gives you comprehensive control over teams creation and naming.

You can:

• Define and centrally manage multiple company-specific naming rules
• Automatically apply prefixes/suffixes: custom names, attribute-based (template, classification, sensitivity label) or with previously collected metadata
• Enforce consistent names for SharePoint, OneNote, Planner, and Teams
• Create policy packages with naming conventions

Teams Manager automatically enforces the convention when teams are created. This ensures that every new Microsoft Teams group complies with your naming convention.

By ensuring that all connected resources are named appropriately, Teams Manager maintains consistency across the entire Microsoft 365 environment and saves you manual rework.

Naming Conventions with Teams Manager

With Teams Manager, you can easily define different naming conventions and integrate them into Microsoft Teams templates and policies.

Watch the video tutorial with step-by-step instructions here:

Your next Steps for better Microsoft Teams Naming Conventions

With our Microsoft Teams naming convention best practices, you’ll save time, reduce errors, and bring structure to your digital work environment. You’ll create a foundation for Microsoft Teams governance, clarity, and better collaboration.

Get started with structured team names today! Define a consistent scheme and use Microsoft 365 naming policies or Teams Manager. Don’t forget to communicate the importance and benefits to your users and perform regular reviews.

Want to see how easy automating naming conventions can be? Teams Manager offers you the professional solution.