For online security reasons, it’s safer to not set up WordPress sites using the username “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first things that hackers look for in the WordPress platform.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another User Name
Normally, in a new WordPress installation, the first registered user is the site administrator.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it puts your website or blog at risk of being attacked by hackers or botnets …
Let’s change your admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details after logging into WP:
Select the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click on the user name, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also visit your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard menu.
You will see in the Profile page that usernames can’t be changed inside the Dashboard …
So, how can you modify the admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server:
Click Add New to create a new user …
Next, create a new username, and assign your new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes 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” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete the old user account …
Select the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to your new admin, 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 aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a 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:
Changing A Username Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, the server is using the cPanel management software …
cPanel management application
Log into your server admin area …
cPanel administration area
Find the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated-looking information on your screen screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username just double-click on this text you want to change …
Type in the new user name and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and go back to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration login details …
You should see that your user name is now updated. However, your site will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To edit your “nickname”, visit your Users screen and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also access your Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” box …
Select 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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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum