In JUnit 5, you can add readable names to your tests using the @DisplayName annotation.

@DisplayName lets you show a friendly, human-readable test name in test reports and IDE test runners instead of relying only on the Java method name.

Example

import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;

class CalculatorTest {

    @Test
    @DisplayName("Adding two positive numbers returns their sum")
    void shouldAddTwoPositiveNumbers() {
        int result = 2 + 3;

        assertEquals(5, result);
    }
}

The method name is still:

shouldAddTwoPositiveNumbers

But the test report can display:

Adding two positive numbers returns their sum

Add Display Names to Test Classes

You can also add @DisplayName to the test class itself:

import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

@DisplayName("Password validation tests")
class PasswordValidatorTest {

    @Test
    @DisplayName("Valid password should be accepted")
    void shouldAcceptValidPassword() {
        assertTrue(true);
    }

    @Test
    @DisplayName("Short password should be rejected")
    void shouldRejectShortPassword() {
        assertTrue(true);
    }
}

Using Emojis or Symbols

JUnit 5 display names can include spaces, punctuation, and even emojis:

@Test
@DisplayName("✅ Valid email should pass validation")
void shouldAcceptValidEmail() {
    assertTrue(true);
}

Use this carefully. Emojis can make reports more readable, but they may not be appropriate for every team or CI environment.

Display Names for Nested Tests

@DisplayName is especially useful with @Nested tests:

import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Nested;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;

@DisplayName("Shopping cart")
class ShoppingCartTest {

    @Nested
    @DisplayName("when adding items")
    class AddingItems {

        @Test
        @DisplayName("updates the total item count")
        void shouldUpdateItemCount() {
            int itemCount = 1 + 2;

            assertEquals(3, itemCount);
        }
    }
}

This can produce a readable test structure such as:

Shopping cart
 └─ when adding items
    └─ updates the total item count

Display Names for Parameterized Tests

For parameterized tests, you can customize each invocation name:

import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

class NumberTest {

    @ParameterizedTest(name = "{0} should be positive")
    @ValueSource(ints = {1, 5, 10})
    void shouldBePositive(int number) {
        assertTrue(number > 0);
    }
}

This can display:

1 should be positive
5 should be positive
10 should be positive

You can also combine it with @DisplayName:

import org.junit.jupiter.api.DisplayName;
import org.junit.jupiter.params.ParameterizedTest;
import org.junit.jupiter.params.provider.ValueSource;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTrue;

class NumberTest {

    @DisplayName("Positive number validation")
    @ParameterizedTest(name = "Value {0} is positive")
    @ValueSource(ints = {1, 5, 10})
    void shouldBePositive(int number) {
        assertTrue(number > 0);
    }
}

Required Dependency

Make sure you are using JUnit Jupiter, which is JUnit 5:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.junit.jupiter</groupId>
    <artifactId>junit-jupiter</artifactId>
    <version>5.13.4</version>
    <scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

For Gradle:

testImplementation 'org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.13.4'

test {
    useJUnitPlatform()
}

Summary

Use @DisplayName when you want test output to be more readable:

@Test
@DisplayName("User should be created when input is valid")
void shouldCreateUserWhenInputIsValid() {
}

The Java method name remains valid and searchable, while the test report shows a clearer description.