You set up event tracking six months ago. It worked. You added Google Analytics 4, maybe Plausible or Fathom, wired up a few conversions, and moved on.
Now you’re trying to build a funnel report and half your events don’t match. button_click in one tool, Button Click in another, btn_clicked in your CRM. None of them talk to each other. Your attribution is broken before you even start analyzing.
Event naming isn’t glamorous, but it’s the difference between actionable data and a dashboard full of question marks.
Why event names diverge
Most operators start tracking events one tool at a time. You add GA4, fire a sign_up event. Two months later, you install a heatmap tool and track signup_button. Your email platform logs Signup with a capital S. Your payment processor calls it account_created.
Each name made sense in isolation. But now you’re trying to connect the dots across platforms, and nothing lines up.
The problem gets worse when multiple people touch your tracking stack. A contractor adds events with camelCase. You prefer snake_case. Your VA uses sentence case because that’s what the UI suggested. Three months later, you have 47 events and no idea which ones measure the same thing.
Renaming events after the fact is painful. GA4 lets you modify event names via the interface, but historical data stays unchanged. Most analytics tools don’t offer retroactive renaming at all. You either live with the mess or start over.
What a naming convention actually needs
A useful event naming system has three jobs: it prevents duplicates, it groups related events, and it survives handoffs to other people.
Start with a consistent case format. Snake_case (button_click) works well because it’s readable, doesn’t break in spreadsheets, and most analytics platforms handle it without fuss. Avoid spaces, capital letters, and special characters unless your tool explicitly requires them.
Use a namespace prefix for event categories. If you track multiple funnels—say, newsletter signups and course purchases—prefix each event with its domain: newsletter_signup_started, course_checkout_completed. This keeps related events grouped in alphabetical lists and makes filtering easier.
Be specific about the action and the object. click is too vague. button_click is better. header_cta_click is best. When you’re looking at a list of 50 events three months from now, you want to know exactly what fired without opening the implementation code.
Write it down. A shared Google Doc, a Notion page, a comment block in your tag manager—anywhere your future self and collaborators can check before adding a new event. Include the event name, where it fires, what it measures, and when it was added. This takes two minutes per event and saves hours of detective work later.
How to audit what you have
Pull a full event list from each tool you use. GA4 lets you export all events from the Events report. Plausible shows them under Goals. Your CRM probably has an API endpoint or a CSV export.
Dump everything into a spreadsheet. Look for duplicates with different casing, pluralization, or verb tenses. form_submit and form_submitted probably measure the same thing. So do page_view and pageview.
Group events by funnel stage or user journey. Which events represent awareness? Consideration? Conversion? If an event doesn’t clearly belong to a stage, it’s either redundant or poorly named.
Decide which names to keep. Prioritize the ones already in your most critical reports. If you’ve been running a GA4 funnel for six months with checkout_started, don’t rename it to cart_checkout_begin just for consistency. Rename the outliers instead.
For tools that allow it, create event mappings or modify event parameters to normalize naming without losing historical data. GA4’s “modify event” feature lets you rename events going forward while keeping old data intact. Not ideal, but better than a full reset.
For tools that don’t support renaming, add a documented transition period. Fire both the old and new event names for 30 days, then retire the old one. This gives your dashboards time to adjust without dropping data.
When to enforce the system
New events should follow the convention from day one. Before you add anything, check the doc. If the name isn’t there, add it. If it conflicts with an existing event, revise it before you push the code live.
Set up a monthly review. Scan your event list for anything that doesn’t match the pattern. If you find a rogue event, trace it back to the source and fix it. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.
If you work with contractors or team members, include event naming rules in your onboarding docs. A two-paragraph explainer and a link to your event registry will prevent most mistakes.
This isn’t about perfectionism. It’s about making sure the data you collect six months from now is still useful. Consistent event naming doesn’t make your funnels convert better, but it makes it possible to know why they don’t.
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