For improved web security, it’s recommended that you do not install WordPress sites using the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things hackers look for in a WordPress site.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical users, we’ll show you how to change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name
By default, on a new WordPress installation, the first registered user is usually the site administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it can pose a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details inside your admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click on your user name, or 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 Dashboard …
You can also visit your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin sidebar menu.
You will discover when you get into the Profile page that user names can’t be changed inside the site admin section …
So, how do you change the WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your username is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your user name without accessing your server and touching your server files or WordPress database:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign the new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now be displaying …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete the old user account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the new user, then confirm the deletion of the old user 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 really designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a WordPress user name 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:
How To Change Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, the server uses cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel admin area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated screen.
Click on wp_users in the left-hand column …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name just 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 a 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. If so, log in again with your new Admin user name and password …
You should see that the username has been updated. However, it will probably still display the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, open your Users screen and click on the Edit link below your user name …
You can also get to the Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Choose 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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