For web security purposes, avoid creating sites with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks and security threats on WordPress.
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 To Another Username
Normally, on all new WordPress installations, the first user is also the admin of the website or blog.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it puts your blog at risk …
Let’s change your WordPress admin user name to a more secure username.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section after logging into your WordPress backend admin area:
Select the Users > All Users screen in your main menu …
Click on the username, or click on the Edit link when hovering over the username 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” screen by selecting Users > Your Profile from the main menu.
What you will see in the Profile area, however, is that you cannot change your username from the backend admin section …
So, how do you edit a user name?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change the username without accessing your server and doing technical stuff:
First, create a new user …
Next, create a new user name, and assign your new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You have now added a new admin user …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new username details in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete your old administrator account …
Choose the option to attribute all content owned by the old admin account and reassigned it to the new user, 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 mostly aimed 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 Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For the example below, the server uses the cPanel management tool …
cPanel management software
Log into your server admin area …
cPanel admin area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WP database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the complicated screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name simply 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 a new user name …
Log out of your server if you’re finished and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration credentials …
You will see that the username has been updated. However, your admin details will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, open your Users area and click on the Edit link below the username …
You can also reach the Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select 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 dropdown 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 or blog.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)