For increased WordPress security, you should never install WordPress sites with the username “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the first things hackers look for when attempting to break into a WordPress site.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to change your admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
Changing Your WP Admin User Name To A More Secure Username
Normally, on a new WordPress site, the first user is the admin.
Having the default WordPress user name admin is not recommended, as it can out your site at risk …
Let’s change your WordPress admin username from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to view your user name details inside WordPress:
Select the Users > All Users screen in your 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” dropdown menu near the top-right hand corner of your admin area …
You can also visit your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.
What you will see when you get into the Profile page, however, is that your user name can’t be changed from your site admin section …
So, how can you change a WordPress admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your username is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server and touching files or your WordPress database:
Click Add New to add a new user …
Next, create a better user name, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes in order to update your settings …
You have now added a new user with the role of admin …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new username details displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old user account …
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 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 your 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:
Changing Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For this example, the server uses the cPanel management tool …
cPanel management application
Log into your server admin account …
cPanel administration area
Find the “Databases” section and click on phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you select the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the technical-looking nature of the information on your screen.
Click on wp_users …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the username simply 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 your new user name …
Log out of your server when you’re done and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin details …
You should see that your user name is now updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the previous “nickname” …
To edit your “nickname”, open your Users area and click the Edit link below your user name …
You can also reach your Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” section …
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 username 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)