For security purposes, avoid setting up WordPress sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first things hackers will test with a WordPress web site.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to change the WordPress admin user name to a more secure username.
How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To Another Username
By default, with a new WordPress installation, the first registered user is the admin of the site.
The default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it can out your site at risk of being hacked …
Let’s change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to view your user name details inside your admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users screen in your main menu …
Click either on the username, or the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” drop-down menu near the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also access your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from your Dashboard side menu.
You will see when you get into your Profile area that your user name cannot be changed from your site admin section …
So, how can you edit the username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your user name is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your username without going into your server:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a different user name, and assign your new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now display in the Users screen …
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 in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on 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 the 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 aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change a username inside the WordPress database.
All you need is 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 A User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For our example, we’ll be working with the cPanel management software …
cPanel management tool
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down 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 that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users …
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 the new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re done and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin user name and password …
You should see that the username is now updated. However, your site will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, go to your Users screen and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also access your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” panel …
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 user name and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change your WordPress admin user name on your website.
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