For better WordPress security, it’s best to not create a WordPress site with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks and security threats on the WordPress platform.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
Changing Your WP Admin Username
Generally, in 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 site at risk of being hacked …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section inside your Dashboard area:
Click on the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click either on your user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu near the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also access your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin sidebar menu.
You will discover in the Profile page that your user name cannot be changed from the administration section …
So, how can you change a WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your user name is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the user name without accessing your server and doing technical changes to your WordPress database:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes to update your settings …
You have now added a new user with the role of admin …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
Delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old account …
You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin username …
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 designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your user name inside the WordPress database.
All you need is admin 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:
How To Change Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management tool …
cPanel
Log into your server administration area …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure that you choose the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t be concerned about the technical-looking nature of the information on your screen.
Click on wp_users in the left-hand column …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the field 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 the new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re done and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration details …
You will see that your user name has been updated. However, your site will probably still display the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, visit your Users screen and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also reach the Profile section by clicking 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 your WordPress admin user name on your website.
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