For better website security, you should not create a WordPress site with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first things that hackers look for when attempting to break into a WordPress website or blog.
In this tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, you will learn how to change the WordPress admin username to a more secure username.
Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another User Name
Generally, in all new WordPress sites, the first registered user is usually the site administrator.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it poses a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details inside your WP site admin area:
Select the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click either on the username, or 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” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin sidebar menu.
You will discover when you get into your Profile page that you cannot change usernames inside your Dashboard …
So, how do you edit this WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress user name is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the user name without going into your server and doing technical changes to your WordPress database:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a more secure username, and assign the new user the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now be displaying …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with the new admin details for the user you have just created …
You should see your new user name details in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to your new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old user 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 really aimed 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.
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 our example, the server uses cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users …
The username 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 username and click outside the edit box to update the field with your new user name …
Log out of your server if you’re done and go back 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 your 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 on the Edit link below the username …
You can also access 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 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 dropdown 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 user name on your website or blog.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)