How To Change The Admin Username In WordPress

The default WordPress username admin poses a security risk to your WordPress site. Learn how to change the admin username in WordPress for improved security …

Learn WPFor improved WordPress site security, don’t set up a WordPress site using the username “admin”.

This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on the WordPress platform.

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different Username

In this tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, we’ll show you how to change your admin user name in WordPress to a more secure username.

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To A More Secure User Name

Normally, with all new WordPress sites, the first user is the administrator.

Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it could pose a security risk to your WordPress site …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure User Name

Let’s change the WordPress admin username to a more secure username.

There are a number of ways to view your username details inside your WordPress admin area:

Click on the Users > All Users screen in your main menu …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

Click on your user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To Another User Name

Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu at the top-right hand corner of your admin area …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username

You can also go to your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin menu.

You will discover when you get into your Profile area that you can’t change your username inside your Dashboard section …

Changing Your WordPress Admin Username

So, how do you modify this 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 username without going into your server and doing technical changes to your WordPress database:

First, let’s create a new user …

How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

Next, create a different username, and assign the new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …

Changing Your WordPress Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

You have now created a new admin user …

Changing Your WP Admin Username

Log out of your WordPress admin area …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A More Secure User Name

Log in with your new admin details …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different Username

You should see your new username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

Delete the old user account …

How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name To A More Secure Username

Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the new user, then confirm the deletion of the old user account …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin user name …

Changing Your WordPress Username From Admin To A More Secure 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)

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

(Install the plugin)

After installing the plugin, click the ‘Activate’ button …

Activate the plugin

(Activate the plugin)

Configuring The Plugin

After installing and activating the plugin, go to Settings > Username Changer

Settings - Username Changer menu

(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

(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

(Username Changer Settings – Email notifications)

Using The Plugin

To change your username, go to Users > Your Profile

Users - Your Profile menu

(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

(Click on ‘Change Username’ link)

The ‘Username’ field will become editable. Change your username and click the ‘Save Username’ button …

Save your new username

(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

(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

(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

(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

(Username changed)

To learn more about this plugin, go here: Username Changer

Important

Although this tutorial is mostly aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a username inside the WordPress database.

All you need is access to your server’s control panel.

Tip

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

In our example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management application …

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name

cPanel management software

Log into your server control panel …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress To Another Username

cPanel administration area

Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

phpMyAdmin

Click on your WP database.

Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure that you choose the correct one …

How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To A Different Username

phpMyAdmin databases

Don’t be concerned about the complicated-looking screen.

Click on wp_users

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different Username

The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username just double-click on the text you want to change …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another User Name

Type in the new username and click outside the edit box to update the field with your new username …

How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different Username

Log out of your server if you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration user name and password …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You should see that the username has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still display the old “nickname” …

How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username To A Different Username

To edit the “nickname”, access your Users section and click on the Edit link below your user name …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another Username

You can also reach your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A More Secure User Name

Select a new name to display publicly from the drop down menu …

Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name To Another Username

Practical Tip

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 …

Changing Your WP Admin User Name To A More Secure User Name

Click Update Profile to save your new settings …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

You admin area is now updated with a new user name and nickname …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress

Congratulations! Now you know how to change the WordPress admin username on your website.

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different User Name

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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group