For security reasons, you should never create WordPress sites with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first vulnerable areas of website security that hackers will test with WordPress websites.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical users, you will learn how to change the admin user name in WordPress to a more secure username.
Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name
Typically, on a new WordPress website installation, the first user is the admin.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it can out your WordPress site at risk of being hacked …
Let’s change the admin user name in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section inside your site admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click either on your username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” drop down menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also go to your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard side menu.
What you will discover in the Profile page, however, is that user names can’t be changed inside the Dashboard …
So, how do you edit this WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your user name without going into your server and altering your server files or your WordPress database:
First, create a new user …
Next, create a better username, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You should now have a new admin user with a new username, as well as the original user name (i.e. “admin”) …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete the old user account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to your new user, then confirm the deletion of the old admin account …
You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin user name …
Change Admin Username Using A WordPress Plugin
Another easy way to change the username is to use a plugin like the one shown below.
Username Changer
(Username changer)
Username Changer is a free WordPress plugin that lets you easily change your admin username (and allow other users to change their usernames too!)
Installing The Plugin
To install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add Plugins and type in “username” into the Keyword search field (if you need help see our tutorial on installing WordPress plugins).
There are several plugins you can use to perform a similar function. Locate the Username Changer plugin and click on ‘Install Now’ …
(Install the plugin)
After installing the plugin, click the ‘Activate’ button …
(Activate the plugin)
Configuring The Plugin
After installing and activating the plugin, go to Settings > Username Changer …
(Settings – Username Changer menu)
This brings you to the ‘Settings’ screen.
Here, you can allow other user roles to change their usernames too (be careful about doing this!) …
(Username Changer Settings – Allowed Roles)
You can also configure email notifications (if you choose to allow users to change their usernames) …
(Username Changer Settings – Email notifications)
Using The Plugin
To change your username, go to Users > Your Profile …
(Users – Your Profile menu)
Scroll down to the ‘Name’ section and you will see a ‘Change Username’ link next to the grayed out username field. Click on this link to change your username …
(Click on ‘Change Username’ link)
The ‘Username’ field will become editable. Change your username and click the ‘Save Username’ button …
(Save your new username)
Changing your username will log you out of your WordPress admin area. You will need to log back into your WordPress site.
Click on the link to log back in …
(Click on the link to log back in)
Log back into your site with your new username (note: your password should remain the same) …
(Log back in with your new username)
Note: If you don’t click on the link to log back in you will find yourself logged out of your site …
(Changing your username will expire your session)
After logging back into your site, go to your User Profile section and you will see that your username has been changed.
(Username changed)
To learn more about this plugin, go here: Username Changer
Although this tutorial is mostly aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a WordPress username inside the WordPress database.
All you need is access to your server.
To learn how to search and replace content in your WordPress database without touching code or editing WordPress database tables, see the tutorial below:
Changing A Username Inside The WordPress Database
For the example below, the server uses cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server administration account …
cPanel admin area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WordPress database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name just double-click on the text you want to change …
Type in the new username and click outside the edit box to update the field with a new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session has expired. Log in again with your new administration user name and password …
You should see that the username has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, visit your Users area and click the Edit link below your user name …
You can also reach your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Choose a new name to display publicly from the drop down menu …
Note: You can also create a new Nickname in the Nickname field and it will then be available for selection in the Display name publicly as drop-down menu …
Click Update Profile to save your new settings …
You admin area is now updated with a new user name and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change the WordPress admin username on your website.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum