diff --git a/src/instruments/dto/create-instrument.dto.ts b/src/instruments/dto/create-instrument.dto.ts
index 7f9b779dd..5f674188e 100644
--- a/src/instruments/dto/create-instrument.dto.ts
+++ b/src/instruments/dto/create-instrument.dto.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@ import { IsObject, IsOptional, IsString } from "class-validator";
 
 @ApiTags("instruments")
 export class CreateInstrumentDto {
+  @ApiProperty({
+    type: String,
+    uniqueItems: true,
+    required: true,
+  })
+  @IsString()
+  readonly uniqueName: string;
+
   @ApiProperty({
     type: String,
     required: true,
diff --git a/src/instruments/instruments.controller.ts b/src/instruments/instruments.controller.ts
index b0a1b34a9..999d8760f 100644
--- a/src/instruments/instruments.controller.ts
+++ b/src/instruments/instruments.controller.ts
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ export class InstrumentsController {
       return instrument;
     } catch (e) {
       throw new HttpException(
-        "Instrument with the same name already exists",
+        "Instrument with the same unique name already exists",
         HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST,
       );
     }
@@ -134,7 +134,18 @@ export class InstrumentsController {
     @Param("id") id: string,
     @Body() updateInstrumentDto: UpdateInstrumentDto,
   ): Promise<Instrument | null> {
-    return this.instrumentsService.update({ _id: id }, updateInstrumentDto);
+    try {
+      const instrument = await this.instrumentsService.update(
+        { _id: id },
+        updateInstrumentDto,
+      );
+      return instrument;
+    } catch (e) {
+      throw new HttpException(
+        "Instrument with the same unique name already exists",
+        HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST,
+      );
+    }
   }
 
   @UseGuards(PoliciesGuard)
diff --git a/src/instruments/instruments.service.spec.ts b/src/instruments/instruments.service.spec.ts
index 782500c3d..68793cefe 100644
--- a/src/instruments/instruments.service.spec.ts
+++ b/src/instruments/instruments.service.spec.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { Instrument } from "./schemas/instrument.schema";
 const mockInstrument: Instrument = {
   _id: "testPid",
   pid: "testPid",
+  uniqueName: "Test",
   name: "Test",
   customMetadata: {},
 };
diff --git a/src/instruments/schemas/instrument.schema.ts b/src/instruments/schemas/instrument.schema.ts
index 2e9e43801..8fa6d73de 100644
--- a/src/instruments/schemas/instrument.schema.ts
+++ b/src/instruments/schemas/instrument.schema.ts
@@ -40,13 +40,26 @@ export class Instrument {
   @ApiProperty({
     type: String,
     required: true,
-    description: "The name of the instrument. The name has to be unique.",
+    description:
+      "The unique name of the instrument. This name has to be unique within the scicat instance.",
   })
   @Prop({
     type: String,
     unique: true,
     required: true,
   })
+  uniqueName: string;
+
+  @ApiProperty({
+    type: String,
+    required: true,
+    description:
+      "The common name of the instrument. This name can be non unique as it is the name that users use to commnoly refer to this instrument.",
+  })
+  @Prop({
+    type: String,
+    required: true,
+  })
   name: string;
 
   @ApiProperty({
diff --git a/test/Instrument.js b/test/Instrument.js
index 675f6c3ed..e3fb90d7b 100644
--- a/test/Instrument.js
+++ b/test/Instrument.js
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ let accessTokenIngestor = null,
   instrumentId3 = null,
   encodedInstrumentId3 = null;
 
-const newName = "ESS2.5";
+const newName = "ESS3-1";
 
 describe("0900: Instrument: instrument management, creation, update, deletion and search", () => {
   beforeEach((done) => {
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ describe("0900: Instrument: instrument management, creation, update, deletion an
       });
   });
 
-  it("0040: adds instrument #2 again as ingestor, which should fail", async () => {
+  it("0040: adds instrument #2 again as ingestor, which should fail because uniqueName is not unique", async () => {
     return request(appUrl)
       .post("/api/v3/Instruments")
       .send(TestData.InstrumentCorrect2)
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ describe("0900: Instrument: instrument management, creation, update, deletion an
       .expect(400);
   });
 
-  it("0050: adds invalid instrument as ingestor, which should fail", async () => {
+  it("0050: adds invalid instrument as ingestor, which should fail because it is missing the uniqeName", async () => {
     return request(appUrl)
       .post("/api/v3/Instruments")
       .send(TestData.InstrumentWrong1)
@@ -275,6 +275,15 @@ describe("0900: Instrument: instrument management, creation, update, deletion an
       });
   });
 
+  it("0155: update unique name for instrument #2 as ingestor to ESS3-1, which should fail becuase is not unique ", async () => {
+    return request(appUrl)
+      .patch("/api/v3/Instruments/" + instrumentId2)
+      .send({ uniqueName: newName })
+      .set("Accept", "application/json")
+      .set({ Authorization: `Bearer ${accessTokenIngestor}` })
+      .expect(400);
+  });
+
   it("0160: should fetch same instrument by id as ingestor", async () => {
     return request(appUrl)
       .get("/api/v3/Instruments/" + instrumentId2)
diff --git a/test/InstrumentsFilter.js b/test/InstrumentsFilter.js
index 5c6d700eb..048a7a441 100644
--- a/test/InstrumentsFilter.js
+++ b/test/InstrumentsFilter.js
@@ -22,23 +22,24 @@ let instrumentPid1 = null,
 
 
 const InstrumentCorrect1 = {
-  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect,
+  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect1,
   name: "ESS instrument one",
 };
   
 const InstrumentCorrect2 = {
-  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect,
+  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect2,
   name: "ESS instrument two",
 };
 
 const InstrumentCorrect3 = {
-  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect,
+  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect3,
   name: "Another instrument at ESS, number three",
 };
   
 const InstrumentCorrect4 = {
-  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect,
-  name: "Yet another instrument at ESS, number four",
+  ...TestData.InstrumentCorrect3,
+  uniqueName: "ESS3-2",
+  name: "Yet another instrument at ESS, a new number three different from the other",
 };
 
 describe("InstrumentFilter: Test retrieving instruments using filtering capabilities", () => {
diff --git a/test/TestData.js b/test/TestData.js
index cedc86d8a..030a1cd91 100644
--- a/test/TestData.js
+++ b/test/TestData.js
@@ -713,6 +713,7 @@ const TestData = {
   },
 
   InstrumentCorrect1: {
+    uniqueName: "ESS1-1",
     name: "ESS1",
     customMetadata: {
       institute: "An immaginary intitution #1",
@@ -721,6 +722,7 @@ const TestData = {
     },
   },
   InstrumentCorrect2: {
+    uniqueName: "ESS2-1",
     name: "ESS2",
     customMetadata: {
       institute: "An immaginary intitution #2",
@@ -729,7 +731,8 @@ const TestData = {
     },
   },
   InstrumentCorrect3: {
-    name: "ESS3",
+    uniqueName: "ESS3-1",
+    name: "ESS1",
     customMetadata: {
       institute: "An immaginary intitution #3",
       department: "An immaginary department #3",
@@ -737,7 +740,7 @@ const TestData = {
     },
   },
   InstrumentWrong1: {
-    instrumentName: "ESS-wrong",
+    name: "ESS-wrong",
   },
 
 };