For security reasons, avoid installing sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities that hackers will test with WordPress sites.
In this step-by-step tutorial for non-technical WordPress users, we’ll show you how to change the admin user name in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
By default, in all new WordPress sites, the first user is the admin of the website.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it creates a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the WordPress admin user name to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section inside your WP admin area:
Select the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click either on your user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also access your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard side menu.
What you will see when you get into the Profile page, however, is that you cannot change your user name from the Dashboard …
So, how do you edit this user name?
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the user name without accessing your server:
Click Add New to create a new user …
Next, create a new username, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You will now have a new admin user with a new user name, and your 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 username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
Delete your old user account …
Choose the option to assign 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 …
Another easy way to change the username is to use a plugin like the one shown below.
(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!)
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)
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)
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 intended 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.
To learn how to search and replace content in your WordPress database without touching code or editing WordPress database tables, see the tutorial below:
For the example below, the server uses cPanel …
cPanel management tool
Log into your server admin area …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see 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 field 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 a new username …
Log out of your server if you’re finished and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new Admin details …
You should see that your username is now updated. However, your site will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To edit the “nickname”, visit your Users area and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also get to your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” box …
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 your WordPress admin username 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