For security purposes, never create sites with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on WordPress sites.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, we’ll show you how to change the WordPress admin username to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another User Name
Typically, with a new WordPress installation, the first user is usually the site administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it creates a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details after logging into your administration area:
Select the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click either on the user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu near the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also go to your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin sidebar menu.
You will see in the Profile page that you can’t change user names inside the site admin section …
So, how do you change your username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your user name without going into your server and doing technical stuff:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign this new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now display in the Users area …
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 …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete the old user account …
Choose 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 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 a 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, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel management tool
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel admin area
Find the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up 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 worry about the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name simply double-click on the text you want to change …
Type in the new username and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and return to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration details …
You will see that your username has been updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, visit your Users screen and click on the Edit link below your user name …
You can also reach the Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” box …
Select 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 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 or blog.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum