DEPR: setting MultiIndex.name

doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst

@@ -806,6 +806,7 @@ Other Deprecations
 - Deprecated backward-compatibility behavior for :meth:`DataFrame.select_dtypes` matching "str" dtype when ``np.object_`` is specified (:issue:`61916`)
 - Deprecated option "future.no_silent_downcasting", as it is no longer used. In a future version accessing this option will raise (:issue:`59502`)
 - Deprecated passing non-Index types to :meth:`Index.join`; explicitly convert to Index first (:issue:`62897`)
+- Deprecated setting the :attr:`MultiIndex.name` attribute, as it is not used. Set :attr:`MultiIndex.names` instead (:issue:`11979`)
 - Deprecated silent casting of non-datetime 'other' to datetime in :meth:`Series.combine_first` (:issue:`62931`)
 - Deprecated silently casting strings to :class:`Timedelta` in binary operations with :class:`Timedelta` (:issue:`59653`)
 - Deprecated slicing on a :class:`Series` or :class:`DataFrame` with a :class:`DatetimeIndex` using a ``datetime.date`` object, explicitly cast to :class:`Timestamp` instead (:issue:`35830`)

pandas/core/groupby/generic.py

@@ -2180,7 +2180,7 @@ def _wrap_applied_output_series(
 
         index = key_index
         columns = first_not_none.index.copy()
-        if columns.name is None:
+        if columns.name is None and not isinstance(columns, MultiIndex):
             # GH6124 - propagate name of Series when it's consistent
             names = {v.name for v in values}
             if len(names) == 1:

pandas/core/indexes/base.py

@@ -1802,6 +1802,15 @@ def name(self, value: Hashable) -> None:
                 "Cannot set name on a level of a MultiIndex. Use "
                 "'MultiIndex.set_names' instead."
             )
+        if self._is_multi:
+            warnings.warn(
+                # GH#11979
+                "Setting .name on a MultiIndex is deprecated and will "
+                "raise in a future version. Set 'names' instead.",
+                Pandas4Warning,
+                stacklevel=find_stack_level(),
+            )
+
         maybe_extract_name(value, None, type(self))
         self._name = value
 
@@ -6188,7 +6197,10 @@ def _get_indexer_strict(self, key, axis_name: str_t) -> tuple[Index, np.ndarray]
         keyarr = self.take(indexer)
         if isinstance(key, Index):
             # GH 42790 - Preserve name from an Index
-            keyarr.name = key.name
+            if keyarr._is_multi:
+                keyarr.names = key.names
+            else:
+                keyarr.name = key.name
         if lib.is_np_dtype(keyarr.dtype, "mM") or isinstance(
             keyarr.dtype, DatetimeTZDtype
         ):

pandas/tests/indexes/test_any_index.py

@@ -110,10 +110,12 @@ def test_pickle_roundtrip(self, index):
             assert index.equal_levels(result)
 
     def test_pickle_preserves_name(self, index):
-        original_name, index.name = index.name, "foo"
+        if not index._is_multi:
+            original_name, index.name = index.name, "foo"
         unpickled = tm.round_trip_pickle(index)
         assert index.equals(unpickled)
-        index.name = original_name
+        if not index._is_multi:
+            index.name = original_name
 
 
 class TestIndexing:
@@ -165,8 +167,10 @@ def test_getitem_error(self, index, item):
 class TestRendering:
     def test_str(self, index):
         # test the string repr
-        index.name = "foo"
-        assert "'foo'" in str(index)
+        if index._is_multi:
+            pytest.skip(reason=".name does not show up in repr")
+        index.name = "my_index_name"
+        assert "'my_index_name'" in str(index)
         assert type(index).__name__ in str(index)
 
 

pandas/tests/indexes/test_setops.py

@@ -848,10 +848,12 @@ def test_difference_name_preservation(self, index, second_name, expected, sort):
     def test_difference_empty_arg(self, index, sort):
         first = index.copy()
         first = first[5:20]
-        first.name = "name"
+        if not first._is_multi:
+            first.name = "name"
         result = first.difference([], sort)
         expected = index[5:20].unique()
-        expected.name = "name"
+        if not index._is_multi:
+            expected.name = "name"
         tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
 
     def test_difference_should_not_compare(self):

pandas/tests/io/json/test_json_table_schema.py

@@ -640,7 +640,8 @@ def test_set_names_unset(self, idx, nm, prop):
     def test_warns_non_roundtrippable_names(self, idx):
         # GH 19130
         df = DataFrame(index=idx)
-        df.index.name = "index"
+        if not idx._is_multi:
+            df.index.name = "index"
         with tm.assert_produces_warning(UserWarning, match="not round-trippable"):
             set_default_names(df)
 

pandas/tests/resample/test_resampler_grouper.py

@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ def test_empty(keys):
         .set_index(keys, drop=False)
         .set_index(TimedeltaIndex([]), append=True)[expected_columns]
     )
-    if len(keys) == 1:
+    if len(keys) == 1 and not expected.index._is_multi:
         expected.index.name = keys[0]
 
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
@@ -545,7 +545,7 @@ def test_resample_no_index(keys):
     expected = DataFrame(columns=["a", "b", "date"]).set_index(keys, drop=False)
     expected["date"] = pd.to_datetime(expected["date"])
     expected = expected.set_index("date", append=True, drop=True)[expected_columns]
-    if len(keys) == 1:
+    if len(keys) == 1 and not expected.index._is_multi:
         expected.index.name = keys[0]
 
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)