Controlling Maven final name of jar artifact

For Maven >= 3

 <packaging>jar</packaging>
 <build>
   <finalName>WhatEverYouLikey</finalName>
 </build>

See bug report/documentation.

(Credits to Matthew's and his comment)

For older Maven versions

You set the finalName property in the plugin configuration section:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <finalName>myJar</finalName>                   
    </configuration>
</plugin>       

As indicated in the official documentation.

@Maxim
try this...

pom.xml

 <groupId>org.opensource</groupId>
 <artifactId>base</artifactId>
 <version>1.0.0.SNAPSHOT</version>

  ..............
<properties>
    <my.version>4.0.8.8</my.version>
</properties>

<build>
    <finalName>my-base-project</finalName>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>install-file</goal>
                    </goals>
                    <phase>install</phase>
                    <configuration>
                        <file>${project.build.finalName}.${project.packaging}</file>
                        <generatePom>false</generatePom>
                        <pomFile>pom.xml</pomFile>
                        <version>${my.version}</version>
                    </configuration>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

Commnad mvn clean install

Output

[INFO] --- maven-jar-plugin:2.3.1:jar (default-jar) @ base ---
[INFO] Building jar: D:\dev\project\base\target\my-base-project.jar
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-install-plugin:2.3.1:install (default-install) @ base ---
[INFO] Installing D:\dev\project\base\target\my-base-project.jar to H:\dev\.m2\repository\org\opensource\base\1.0.0.SNAPSHOT\base-1.0.0.SNAPSHOT.jar
[INFO] Installing D:\dev\project\base\pom.xml to H:\dev\.m2\repository\org\opensource\base\1.0.0.SNAPSHOT\base-1.0.0.SNAPSHOT.pom
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-install-plugin:2.3.1:install-file (default) @ base ---
[INFO] Installing D:\dev\project\base\my-base-project.jar to H:\dev\.m2\repository\org\opensource\base\4.0.8.8\base-4.0.8.8.jar
[INFO] Installing D:\dev\project\base\pom.xml to H:\dev\.m2\repository\org\opensource\base\4.0.8.8\base-4.0.8.8.pom
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reference

At the package stage, the plugin allows configuration of the imported file names via file mapping:

maven-ear-plugin

http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-ear-plugin/examples/customize-file-name-mapping.html

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-ear-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.7</version>
    <configuration>
       [...]
        <fileNameMapping>full</fileNameMapping>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-war-plugin/war-mojo.html#outputFileNameMapping

If you have configured your version to be 'testing' via a profile or something, this would work for a war package:

maven-war-plugin

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>                        
        <outputFileNameMapping>@{groupId}@-@{artifactId}@-@{baseVersion}@@{dashClassifier?}@.@{extension}@</outputFileNameMapping>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

All of the provided answers are more complicated than necessary. Assuming you are building a jar file, all you need to do is add a <jar.finalName> tag to your <properties> section:

<properties>
    <jar.finalName>${project.name}</jar.finalName>
</properties>

This will generate a jar:

project/target/${project.name}.jar

This is in the documentation - note the User Property:

finalName:
Name of the generated JAR.
Type: java.lang.String
Required: No
User Property: jar.finalName
Default: ${project.build.finalName}

Command Line Usage

You should also be able to use this option on the command line with:

mvn -Djar.finalName=myCustomName ...

You should get myCustomName.jar, although I haven't tested this.