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 better online security, it’s safer to not create sites with the username “admin”.

This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first vulnerable areas of website security that hackers look for in WordPress web sites.

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To Another Username

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

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name

Generally, with a new WordPress site installation, the first user is the administrator.

The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it creates a security risk to your WordPress site …

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

Let’s change the 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 after logging into WP:

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

How To Change Your WP Admin Username To Another Username

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

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To A Different Username

Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” drop-down menu near the top-right hand corner of your screen …

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To Another Username

You can also go to your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from your Dashboard menu.

What you will discover when you get into your Profile page, however, is that your username cannot be changed from your Dashboard …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username 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 username is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server and doing technical stuff:

First, create a new user …

Changing Your WP Admin Username

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

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

You have now added a new user with admin privileges …

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

Log out of your WordPress admin area …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

Log in with your new admin details …

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To Another User Name

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

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

Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …

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

Delete your old user account …

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

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

How To Change Your WP Admin Username

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

How To Change Your Admin Username 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 mostly aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your user name inside the WordPress database.

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

Useful 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:

Changing A Username Inside The WordPress Database

In our example, the server is using the cPanel management application …

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To Another User Name

cPanel management tool

Log into your server control panel …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

cPanel admin area

Find the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different User Name

phpMyAdmin

Click on your WordPress database.

Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you select the right one …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

phpMyAdmin databases

Don’t worry about the complicated-looking screen.

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

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

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

How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To Another User Name

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

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

Log out of your server if you’re done and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session has expired. Log in again with your new administration credentials …

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

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

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

To choose a new “nickname”, visit your Users section and click the Edit link below the user name …

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

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

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

Select a new name to display publicly from the dropdown menu …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

Useful 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 dropdown menu …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To A More Secure Username

Click Update Profile to save your new settings …

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

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

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

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

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

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