For security reasons, it’s strongly recommended that you do 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 CMS.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another User Name
Normally, with all new WordPress site installations, the first user is also the admin of the website.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it poses a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details inside your WP admin area:
Select the Users > All Users screen in the 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” menu at the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also visit your “Profile” area by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.
You will discover when you get into the Profile area that you can’t change your user name from the Dashboard …
So, how do you change this admin user name?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the username without accessing your server and editing your server files or your WordPress database:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a more secure user name, and assign your new user the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes in order to update your settings …
You have now created 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 username details in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete your old administrator account …
Select the option to attribute all content owned by the old user 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 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 a WordPress username inside the WordPress database.
All you need is access to your server’s control panel.
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 User Name Inside The WordPress Database
In this example, the server is using cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Find the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure that you choose the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t be concerned about the complicated screen.
Click on wp_users in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name simply double-click on the text you want to change …
Type in the new user name 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 reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin login details …
You should see that the user name is now updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, go to your Users screen and click the Edit link below your user name …
You can also get to the Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Choose a new name to display publicly from the dropdown 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 username on your website or blog.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group