For security purposes, you should not set up a WordPress site with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things that hackers will test with WordPress.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to change the WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
Changing Your WP Admin Username To Another Username
By default, on all new WordPress website installations, the first user is also the administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it poses a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change the WordPress admin username to a more secure username.
There are several ways to view your user name details after logging into your admin area:
Click on the Users > All Users section in the main menu …
Click on your user name, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” menu at the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also go to your “Profile” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.
What you will see when you get into your Profile page, however, is that you cannot change your username from the admin section …
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 doing technical changes to your WordPress database:
First, create a new user …
Next, create a better username, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now be displaying …
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” screen …
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 admin 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 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 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
In our example, the server uses cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server administration area …
cPanel admin area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WP database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name 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 username 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 reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. Log in again with your new Admin user name and password …
You should see that your username has been updated. However, it will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To change your “nickname”, go to your Users area and click the Edit link below your user name …
You can also access the 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 dropdown 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 dropdown 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 the WordPress admin user name on your website or blog.
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