For improved WordPress security, avoid creating a WordPress site with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks and security threats on the WordPress platform.
In this tutorial for non-technical 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 Another User Name
Generally, with a new WordPress site, the first user is usually the admin.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it could pose a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section inside WordPress:
Select the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click on the username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also access your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin menu.
You will see in the Profile page that you cannot change usernames inside your Dashboard …
So, how do you modify your admin user name?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress user name is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without accessing your server:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different username, and assign this new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …
A new admin user should now display in the Users section …
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” screen …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator 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 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 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’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
In our example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel management tool
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you select the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated-looking information on your screen screen.
Click on wp_users …
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 username …
Log out of your server if you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new administration login credentials …
You will see that your user name has been updated. However, your site will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To edit the “nickname”, open your Users area and click on the Edit link below the user name …
You can also get to your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” section …
Choose a new name to display publicly from the dropdown 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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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum