For security reasons, avoid setting up sites using the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities hackers will test with the WordPress platform.
In this tutorial for non-technical users, you will learn how to change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name To A Different User Name
Normally, with all new WordPress sites, the first user is the admin of the website or blog.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it puts your WordPress site at risk of being attacked by hackers or botnets …
Let’s change your admin username in WordPress to a more secure username.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details inside WP:
Click on the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click on your username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also access your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin menu.
What you will see when you get into your Profile page, however, is that your username cannot be changed inside the administration section …
So, how can you change this admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your user name without going into your server:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You have now created a new user with admin privileges …
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 displayed in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to assign all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the 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 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 intended for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your WordPress user name 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:
How To Change A User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For the example below, the server is using the cPanel management tool …
cPanel management application
Log into your server admin account …
cPanel admin area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure that 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 in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the field just 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 your new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new administration login details …
You will see that your username is now updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To edit the “nickname”, access your Users screen and click on the Edit link below the user name …
You can also reach your Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” panel …
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 username on your website.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now