I have a class like below,

@Entity
public class Configuration {
@Id
@Column(length=64)
private String key;

@Column(length=255)
private String value;
...
}

Hibernate will not create table for me with hbm2ddl.auto=update.

However, if I rename 'key' to something else, for example 'name', the table will be created correctly.

Interesting...

Which database are you using?

Mysql.

Key is a reserved word in SQL as it is a single word i.e. it is Primary key and not primarykey!

If you like to name the column "key" try this

@Entity
public class Configuration {
@Id
@Column(name = "\"key\"", length=64)
private String key;

@Column(length=255)
private String value;
...
}