diff --git a/mlflow/java/client/src/main/java/org/mlflow/tracking/MlflowClient.java b/mlflow/java/client/src/main/java/org/mlflow/tracking/MlflowClient.java
index c035f7568034a..9cc79a8ceb6a5 100644
--- a/mlflow/java/client/src/main/java/org/mlflow/tracking/MlflowClient.java
+++ b/mlflow/java/client/src/main/java/org/mlflow/tracking/MlflowClient.java
@@ -86,7 +86,12 @@ public RunInfo createRun(String experimentId) {
     request.setStartTime(System.currentTimeMillis());
     String username = System.getProperty("user.name");
     if (username != null) {
-      request.setUserId(System.getProperty("user.name"));
+      RunTag.Builder tag = RunTag.newBuilder();
+      tag.setKey("mlflow.user");
+      tag.setValue(username);
+      request.addTags(tag.build());
+      // userId is deprecated and will be removed in a future MLflow release
+      request.setUserId(username);
     }
     return createRun(request.build());
   }
@@ -432,7 +437,6 @@ public void logArtifacts(String runId, File localDir) {
     getArtifactRepository(runId).logArtifacts(localDir);
   }
 
-
   /**
    * Uploads all files within the given local director an artifactPath within the run's root
    * artifact directory. For example, if /my/local/dir/ contains two files "file1" and "file2", then