Cannot create a database table named 'user' in PostgreSQL

We had this same issue time ago, and we just changed the table name from user to app_user. Due to the use of Hibernate/JPA. We thought it would be easier this way. Hope this little fix will help someone else.

user is a reserved word and it's usually not a good idea use reserved words for identifiers (tables, columns).

If you insist on doing that you have to put the table name in double quotes:

create table "user" (...);

But then you always need to use double quotes when referencing the table. Additionally the table name is then case-sensitive. "user" is a different table name than "User".

If you want to save yourself a lot of trouble use a different name. users, user_account, ...

More details on quoted identifiers can be found in the manual: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-syntax-lexical.html#SQL-SYNTAX-IDENTIFIERS

It is possible to specify tablename with JPA with next syntax:

@Table(name="\"user\"")