Renaming “Acronyms” (glossaries package) [duplicate]

Question

I'd like to rename the "Acronyms" section produced by the glossaries package because not all the terms I have included in it are actually acronyms but rather abbreviations.

The only way to change the name I have found so far is using babel to translate the name to another language. Is there a way to simply redefine the name and keep my document language?

Answer 1

If you're not using babel or translator or polyglossia then either my suggestion or @cgnieder's will work. (It would help if you could provide a minimal working example (MWE) when you ask a question.)

First option (see Displaying a Glossary in the user guide):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[acronym]{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\newacronym{abc}{ABC}{a sample acronym}

\begin{document}

\gls{abc}.

\printglossary[type=\acronymtype,title={Abbreviations}]
\end{document}

Second option (see Changing the Fixed Names in the user guide):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[acronym]{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\newacronym{abc}{ABC}{a sample acronym}

\renewcommand*{\acronymname}{Abbreviations}

\begin{document}

\gls{abc}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}

Both the above will produce:

If you do decide to use babel (or if someone else happens on this question who wants a more general answer) either use option 1 above or:

\documentclass{article} 

\usepackage[british]{babel}
\usepackage[acronym,translate=babel]{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\newacronym{abc}{ABC}{a sample acronym}

\addto\captionsbritish
{%
  \renewcommand*{\acronymname}{Abbreviations}
}

\begin{document}

\gls{abc}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}

In this specific case (use "Abbreviations" rather than "Acronyms") another possibility is to use the extension package glossaries-extra:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[nomain,% don't create 'main' glossary
 abbreviations% create 'abbreviations' glossary
]{glossaries-extra}

\makeglossaries

\setabbreviationstyle{long-short}
\setabbreviationstyle[acronym]{short}

\newabbreviation{html}{HTML}{hypertext markup language}
\newacronym{nato}{NATO}{North Atlantic Treaty Organization}

\begin{document}

\gls{html} and \gls{nato}.

\printglossaries
\end{document}