How can I edit my private/secret gnupg key

Question

Some years ago I changed my real life name. I then naturally want to change the names to my public and private GPG keys. I have managed to generate subkeys to my public keys with my new real life name, and I have managed to revoke subkeys with my previous name.

However: How can I change the name in the private key?

(I do understand that this actually does not matter much, since I'm not sharing this key with anyone anyway.)

Answer 1

There is no name stored in your private key. All UIDs are bound to the primary public/private key pair (by a special kind of signature). Add a new UID, make it primary and revoke the old one - you're done.

$ gpg --edit-key [key-id]
gpg> adduid   # Go through user ID assistant
gpg> list     # Get list of UIDs
gpg> [n]      # The number of the just added UID, probably "2"
gpg> primary  # Set primary UID
gpg> [m]      # The number of the old UID
gpg> revuid   # Revoke that UID
gpg> save

Be aware that all incoming signatures (if you had any) point to the old UID, not the key; so you will be losing them anyway.