For security reasons, avoid setting up sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities hackers look for in WordPress web sites.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical users, we’ll show you how to change the WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name
Typically, with all new WordPress sites, the first user is also the site administrator.
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 WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to view your username details after logging into your admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click either on your username, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also go to your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from your Dashboard menu.
What you will discover when you get into the Profile page, however, is that you can’t change user names inside your Dashboard …
So, how do you edit your WordPress admin 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 accessing your server:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a better username, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …
A new admin user should now be displaying …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete the old user account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old admin 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 Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
In the example below, the server is using the cPanel management tool …
cPanel management application
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel admin area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WP database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t be concerned 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 user name 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 user name …
Log out of your server when you’re finished and go back to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration login credentials …
You will see that your username is now updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To edit your “nickname”, visit your Users area and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also get to your Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” section …
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 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 username on your website.
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"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)