For better security, avoid installing 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 CMS.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, we’ll show you how to change your admin user name in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another User Name
Typically, in all new WordPress site installations, the first user is the admin.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it puts your WordPress site at risk …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to view your username details after logging into WP:
Click on the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click on your username, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu near the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also visit your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard menu.
What you will see in the Profile area, however, is that you can’t change your username inside your Dashboard …
So, how do you edit 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 this without going into your server and altering your server files or WordPress database:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a new user name, and assign your new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …
You have now added a new user with the role of admin …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin 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 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 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 user name 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:
Changing Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management application …
cPanel management application
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel admin area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up 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 in the left-hand column …
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 the new username …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and return to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin login details …
You should see that the username is now updated. However, it will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To change the “nickname”, visit your Users section and click on the Edit link below your user name …
You can also access the Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select 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 dropdown 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 the WordPress admin user name on your website or blog.
***
"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)