For better website security, avoid creating a WordPress site using the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on WordPress websites and blogs.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical users, we’ll show you how to change the WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A Different User Name
By default, with all new WordPress sites, the first registered user is usually the administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it puts your site at risk of being hacked …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details inside your WordPress admin area:
Select the Users > All Users screen 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” drop-down menu near the top-right hand corner of your admin area …
You can also go to your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from your Dashboard menu.
What you will see when you get into your Profile area, however, is that your username can’t be changed inside your Dashboard …
So, how can you edit the WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server and touching your server files or your WordPress database:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. 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 your new admin details …
You should see your new username details in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to your new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old 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 really intended for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a 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 Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
In this example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management software …
cPanel management application
Log into your server administration account …
cPanel admin area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WP database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated-looking 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 simply 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 the new username …
Log out of your server when you’re done and go back to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new administration credentials …
You will see that the username is now updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To change the “nickname”, visit your Users section and click on the Edit link below your username …
You can also access the 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 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 your WordPress admin user name on your website or blog.
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