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 To Use WPFor web security purposes, it’s highly recommended that you don’t create WordPress sites using the username “admin”.

This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities hackers will test with a WordPress web site.

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

In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to change the admin user name in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.

How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another Username

Typically, in all new WordPress sites, the first user is the admin of the site.

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

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different User Name

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

There are a number of ways to view your user name details inside your WordPress backend admin area:

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

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

Click either on the username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …

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

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

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different Username

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

What you will see when you get into your Profile page, however, is that your user name cannot be changed inside the Dashboard …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

So, how can you edit your username?

Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User

If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the user name without accessing your server:

First, create a new user …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Next, create a better user name, and assign this new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes to update your settings …

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

You have now added a new admin user …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress

Log out of your WordPress admin area …

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

Log in with your new admin details …

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

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

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

Select Users > All Users in your main menu …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You can now delete the old administrator account …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username

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

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

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

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another 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 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.

Practical 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 A Username Inside The WordPress Database

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

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

cPanel management application

Log into your server admin account …

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

cPanel admin area

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

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

phpMyAdmin

Open up your WordPress database.

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

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

phpMyAdmin databases

Don’t worry about the complicated-looking information on your screen screen.

Click on wp_users in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another Username

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

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different Username

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

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

Log out of your server when you’re finished and go back to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin login credentials …

Changing Your WP Admin Username

You will see that the username is now updated. However, it will probably still display the old “nickname” …

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name

To edit the “nickname”, visit your Users section and click on the Edit link below your username …

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To Another Username

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

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

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

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

Click Update Profile to save your new settings …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

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

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another Username

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

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

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