How To Change The Admin Username In WordPress

The default WordPress username admin poses a security risk to your WordPress site. Learn how to change the admin username in WordPress for improved security …

WP For BeginnersFor online security reasons, do not install a WordPress site using the username “admin”.

This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things that hackers look for in a WordPress website or blog.

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To Another User Name

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change your admin username in WordPress to a more secure user name.

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

By default, on a new WordPress site, the first user is usually the admin of the website.

Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it could pose a security risk to your WordPress site …

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name

Let’s change your admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.

There are several ways to view your user name details inside WordPress:

Select the Users > All Users page in the main menu …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username To Another User Name

Click on your username, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A More Secure Username

Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name To A More Secure User Name

You can also access your “Profile” section by selecting Users > Your Profile from the Dashboard menu.

You will see when you get into the Profile page that you cannot change your username from your backend admin section …

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A Different Username

So, how do you modify this WordPress admin user name?

Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User

If your username is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the username without accessing your server:

Click Add New to create a new user …

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name

Next, create a more secure username, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes in order to update your settings …

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

You have now added a new user with admin privileges …

How To Change Your WP Admin Username

Log out of your WordPress admin area …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different Username

Log in with the new admin details for the user you have just created …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You should see your new username details in the “Howdy, User” screen …

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

Select Users > All Users in the main menu …

How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username

Delete the old user account …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different Username

Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to your new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old user account …

Changing Your WordPress Admin Username To A More Secure User Name

You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin username …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To Another 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)

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

(Install the plugin)

After installing the plugin, click the ‘Activate’ button …

Activate the plugin

(Activate the plugin)

Configuring The Plugin

After installing and activating the plugin, go to Settings > Username Changer

Settings - Username Changer menu

(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

(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

(Username Changer Settings – Email notifications)

Using The Plugin

To change your username, go to Users > Your Profile

Users - Your Profile menu

(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

(Click on ‘Change Username’ link)

The ‘Username’ field will become editable. Change your username and click the ‘Save Username’ button …

Save your new username

(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

(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

(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

(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

(Username changed)

To learn more about this plugin, go here: Username Changer

Info

Although this tutorial is really aimed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your username inside the WordPress database.

All you need is admin access to your server’s control panel.

Useful Tip

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

In the example below, we’ll be working with cPanel …

Changing Your WordPress Admin Username

cPanel management tool

Log into your server administration account …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To Another Username

cPanel admin area

Find the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different Username

phpMyAdmin

Open up your WP database.

Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the right one …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

phpMyAdmin databases

Don’t worry about the complicated screen.

Click on wp_users

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username just double-click on the text you want to change …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress

Type in the new user name and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new username …

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Log out of your server if you’re done and return to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin credentials …

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

You should see that your username has been updated. However, it will probably still display the old “nickname” …

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A More Secure User Name

To change your “nickname”, go to your Users screen and click the Edit link below the user name …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

You can also get to the Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” panel …

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

Select a new name to display publicly from the drop-down menu …

Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name To A Different Username

Useful Tip

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 …

Changing Your Admin Username In WordPress

Click Update Profile to save your new settings …

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

You admin area is now updated with a new user name and nickname …

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different User Name

Congratulations! Now you know how to change your WordPress admin user name on your website or blog.

How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username To A More Secure User Name

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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group

Originally published as How To Change The Admin Username In WordPress.