For web security purposes, avoid creating sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things hackers look for in a WordPress website.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to change the WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To A More Secure Username
By default, with all new WordPress site installations, the first registered user is the site administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it creates a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change your WordPress admin username to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section inside your WP admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click on your username, 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 admin area …
You can also access your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the main menu.
What you will discover in the Profile page, however, is that you can’t change user names inside your Dashboard …
So, how do you change your 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 accessing your server:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a new user name, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes in order to update your settings …
A new admin user should now display in the Users screen …
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 username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to your new user, then confirm the deletion of the old 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 mostly aimed 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.
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 our example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel management software
Log into your server administration area …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
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 …
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 field 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 your new user name …
Log out of your server if you’re finished and go back to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new administration details …
You will see that your user name has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still display the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, open your Users area and click the Edit link below your username …
You can also get to the Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …
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 username and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change your WordPress admin user name on your website.
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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)