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I'm using Mac OS Snow Leopard (v10.6.8). I've changed the account name under System Preferences > System > Accounts > Full Name. However, that does not change the username on the terminal prompt. That is, by changing the export PS1 to, for example, \u, the username remains the old one.
I did not rename the home directory under /Users/username, but I was hoping it would be possible just to change that particular username on the terminal (I think it is called short name).
Be brave. This is not a big deal. I'll simplify the article from Apple Support, which is wordy and long and documents every button push.
Since you're changing system-level info, you need to have admin privileges. Create a new admin account and log in to it. Use a third name, different than the old and new names that you're changing. It's a good idea to have an extra separate admin account anyway.
Rename the home folder.
In Terminal issue this command and type your admin password if/when prompted:
sudo mv /Users/old_name /Users/new_name
You can verify success by listing the contents of the new folder and seeing your files there.
ls /Users/new_name
Update the OS X account to match the newly renamed home folder in the OS X Preferences.
Go to Preferences -> Accounts and click the lock icon to administer Accounts.
On the account you want to rename, control-click and choose advanced options.
Change the Account Name and Home Directory fields to the new desired values.
Your change is superficial : you also have to rename your user folder. While it is pretty easy to change your computer name on OS X, OS X does not natively handle changing your username, the solution is pretty hackish. In addition to what you have done, you have to create a new user with admin right (name it whateever you want as it would be a temporary account), login in this user, then change the name of your other admin folder (the old one). The problem is that some software rely on absolute path and they won't now where are all the files they created once you have rename your user folder. For instance, I lost all of my vmx and vmdk files as well as my calibre library and was worried at first when I rebooted (I thought I lost everything the first time OS X rebooted, i.e., the time OS X makes the correspondence between the folder of my admin user and the admin account himself).
To answer your question : If you do not want to go through this, you could, in your PS1, remove \u and just type your username in plain text, make this hack an exception (only for the local host as it won't change) so that when you connect to an other computer (with ssh for instance) the correct username will be displayed.
Edit thanks to RobertL's remark: What I did :
1) RobertL's step 2
2) Rename my user folder within finder (in finder menu bar : Goto--> computer --> macintosh HD (or the name of your drive) --> users --> right click on my user --> read informations (or cmd + i) --> rename in the box at the bottom.
Use the Advanced Options menu of User & Groups within Mac OS X System Preferences
How?
When you are in User & Groups hover above the username you like to change and press at the same time Control and left click on your mouse pad. This will display the "advanced options" menu point.
In this menu you can safely change your local username to whatever you like, without any directory renaming or moving and/or typo problems when you try to do that.
Background
A username is mapped again id within "/etc/passwd", and when you rename a User you change the mapping of "ID -> Number" against "Username -> Text".
whoorwhoamireturn in a terminal?