How To Change The Admin Username In WordPress

The default WordPress username admin poses a security risk to your WordPress site. Learn how to change the admin username in WordPress for improved security …

WordPress TutorialFor security purposes, avoid installing WordPress sites using 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.

How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name

In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change your admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To Another Username

By default, on all new WordPress installations, the first registered user is the website administrator.

The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it puts your WordPress site at risk of being hacked …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To A More Secure User Name

Let’s change your WordPress admin user name to a more secure user name.

There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details after logging into WordPress:

Select the Users > All Users screen in the main menu …

How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name

Click either on the user name, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …

Changing Your WP Admin Username

Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …

Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name To A More Secure Username

You can also visit your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin menu.

What you will see when you get into the Profile area, however, is that usernames can’t be changed from the Dashboard …

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

So, how can you modify the 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 the username without going into your server:

Click Add New to create a new user …

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

Next, create a new username, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username To Another User Name

You have now added a new user with admin privileges …

Changing Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another Username

Log out of your WordPress admin area …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress

Log in with the new admin details for the user you have just created …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A More Secure User Name

You should see your new user name details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Select Users > All Users in your main menu …

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

You can now delete your old user account …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different Username

Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old account …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another User Name

You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin user name …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

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)

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

(Install the plugin)

After installing the plugin, click the ‘Activate’ button …

Activate the plugin

(Activate the plugin)

Configuring The Plugin

After installing and activating the plugin, go to Settings > Username Changer

Settings - Username Changer menu

(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

(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

(Username Changer Settings – Email notifications)

Using The Plugin

To change your username, go to Users > Your Profile

Users - Your Profile menu

(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

(Click on ‘Change Username’ link)

The ‘Username’ field will become editable. Change your username and click the ‘Save Username’ button …

Save your new username

(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

(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

(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

(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

(Username changed)

To learn more about this plugin, go here: Username Changer

Important

Although this tutorial is really designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your WordPress username inside the WordPress database.

All you need is access to your server’s control panel.

Practical Tip

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 A Username Inside The WordPress Database

For our example, the server is using the cPanel management tool …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

cPanel

Log into your server control panel …

Changing Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another Username

cPanel admin area

Find the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin

How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another Username

phpMyAdmin

Open up your WP database.

Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the correct one …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

phpMyAdmin databases

Don’t be concerned about the technical-looking nature of the information on your screen.

Click on wp_users in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another Username

The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the field just double-click on this text you want to change …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Type in the new user name and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new user name …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Log out of your server when you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new administration login credentials …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different User Name

You will see that the user name has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

To edit the “nickname”, access your Users area and click on the Edit link below the user name …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

You can also access your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

Select a new name to display publicly from the drop down menu …

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

Tip

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 …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another User Name

Click Update Profile to save your new settings …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different Username

You admin area is now updated with a new username and nickname …

How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name To A More Secure User Name

Congratulations! Now you know how to change the WordPress admin username on your website or blog.

Changing Your WP Admin User Name To A Different User Name

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