For security purposes, never install a WordPress site using the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on WordPress sites.
In this tutorial for non-technical users, we’ll show you how to change your WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To Another User Name
Generally, on a new WordPress website installation, the first user is the administrator.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it puts your website or blog at risk …
Let’s change your admin username in WordPress to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details after logging into your backend admin area:
Select the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click on the username, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the username 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 visit your “Profile” area by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.
What you will discover in the Profile area, however, is that you cannot change user names inside your admin section …
So, how can you modify the WordPress admin user name?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without accessing your server and altering WordPress database:
Click Add New to create a new user …
Next, create a new user name, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …
You will now see a new admin user with a new user name, as well as your original username (i.e. “admin”) …
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 username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select Users > All Users in your main menu …
Delete your old user account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old admin 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 aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your WordPress 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:
How To Change Your Username Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management software …
cPanel
Log into your server administration account …
cPanel administration area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select 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 username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username just double-click on this 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 if you’re done and go back to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new Admin details …
You should see that your username has been updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, go to your Users area and click the Edit link below your user name …
You can also access the Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” section …
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 user name and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change your WordPress admin user name 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