For increased WordPress site security, avoid setting up sites using the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on WordPress.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To Another Username
Typically, in a new WordPress website installation, the first user is also the administrator.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it could pose a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change your WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details after logging into your WP backend admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click either on the user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu near the top-right hand corner of your admin area …
You can also access your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.
You will discover in the Profile area that usernames cannot be changed from your Dashboard …
So, how can you edit this admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your username is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without accessing your server:
First, create a new user …
Next, create a new username, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You have now added a new admin user …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete your old user account …
Select the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to your new admin, 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 mostly designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your WordPress username inside the WordPress database.
All you need is admin access to your server.
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, the server uses the cPanel management application …
cPanel management tool
Log into your server admin account …
cPanel administration area
Find 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 you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t be concerned about the complicated-looking information on your screen screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username just double-click on the 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 has expired. If so, log in again with your new administration credentials …
You should see that your user name has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To change the “nickname”, open your Users area and click on the Edit link below the username …
You can also reach your Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” panel …
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 dropdown 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 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