For improved online security, avoid setting up sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities hackers look for in the WordPress CMS.
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 Admin User Name In WordPress
Generally, with a new WordPress installation, the first user is usually the website administrator.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it poses a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change your 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 WP:
Click on the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click either on the username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” drop down menu at the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also go to your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from your main menu.
You will see when you get into the Profile page that you can’t change usernames from your backend admin section …
So, how can you change a username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server and doing technical changes to your WordPress database:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign this new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes to update your settings …
You will now see a new admin user with a new user name, together with your original username (i.e. “admin”) …
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 …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete the old administrator account …
Choose the option to assign all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to your new user, 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 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:
How To Change A User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For the example below, the server is using cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel admin area
Scroll down 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 that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated screen.
Click on wp_users …
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 user name and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new username …
Log out of your server if you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session has expired. Log in again with your new administration login details …
You will see that the user name is now updated. However, your admin details will probably still display the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, go to your Users screen and click on the Edit link below the username …
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 the WordPress admin user name on your website.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)