For security purposes, you should never install a WordPress site with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks and security threats on the WordPress CMS.
In this tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, you will learn how to change your admin username in WordPress to a more secure username.
Changing Your WP Admin Username To A More Secure Username
Typically, with a new WordPress website installation, the first user is the site administrator.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it can out your blog at risk of being attacked by hackers and bots …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section inside your Dashboard area:
Click on the Users > All Users screen in your main menu …
Click on your user name, 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 admin area …
You can also visit your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from your Dashboard menu.
What you will discover when you get into the Profile area, however, is that you can’t change your user name from the Dashboard …
So, how do you change this 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 your user name without accessing your server:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a new username, and assign this new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order 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 …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete the old administrator account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to your 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 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 aimed 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 admin 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:
Changing A User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open up 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 panic when you see the technical-looking nature of the information on your 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 a new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new administration details …
You will see that your username has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, open your Users screen and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also reach the Profile section by clicking 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 the WordPress admin username on your website or blog.
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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