For better WordPress site security, don’t create a WordPress site with the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation user name for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on WordPress.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change your admin username in WordPress to a more secure username.
How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To Another Username
Normally, with all new WordPress website installations, the first user is also the administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it creates a security risk to your WordPress site …
Let’s change your admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details inside your WordPress Dasboard area:
Click on the Users > All Users page 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” drop down menu at the top-right hand corner of your screen …
You can also access your “Profile” area by selecting Users > Your Profile from the main menu.
You will see when you get into your Profile page that you can’t change your username inside the Dashboard …
So, how do you edit a admin username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress user name is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change your username without going into your server:
First, let’s create a new user …
Next, create a better username, and assign your new user 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 displayed in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select Users > All Users in your main menu …
Delete your old user account …
Select 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 user name inside the WordPress database.
All you need is admin 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:
How To Change Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
In our example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel management software
Log into your server admin account …
cPanel admin area
Find the “Databases” section and open phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Open up your WP database.
Note: If you have multiple databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the technical-looking nature of the information on your screen.
Click on wp_users in the left-hand column …
The user name is located in the “user login” column. To edit the user name 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 the new user name …
Log out of your server if you’re done and go back to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session has expired. Log in again with your new Admin login credentials …
You should see that your username is now updated. However, your admin details will probably still display the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, visit your Users area and click on the Edit link below the username …
You can also get to the Profile section if you click on the Edit My Profile link in the “Howdy, User” box …
Select 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 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 user name on your website.
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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)