For increased online security, you should not set up sites with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things that hackers look for when attempting to break into WordPress.
In this tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, we’ll show you how to change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name
Normally, on a new WordPress website installation, the first user is the admin.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it puts your blog at risk …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details inside your Dashboard area:
Click on the Users > All Users page in the main menu …
Click either on the 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” drop-down menu at the top-right hand corner of your admin area …
You can also access your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard side menu.
What you will see when you get into the Profile area, however, is that you can’t change user names inside the Dashboard …
So, how can you modify this WordPress 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 and modifying your WordPress database:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a new username, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes in order to update your settings …
You will now see a new admin user with a new user name, as well as the original username (i.e. “admin”) …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with the new admin details for the user you have just created …
You should see your new user name details displayed in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Select Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete the old user account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to your new user, 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 really designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a WordPress username inside the WordPress database.
All you need is admin 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
For the example below, the server is using the cPanel management tool …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Navigate to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WP database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the technical-looking nature of the information on your screen.
Click on wp_users in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name 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 your new username …
Log out of your server if you’re finished and go back to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new administration login details …
You will see that the username has been updated. However, it will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, open your Users section 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” screen …
Choose 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 username and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change the WordPress admin user name on your website.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now