For improved online security, it’s safer to not install sites using 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 websites and blogs.
In this tutorial for non-technical users, you will learn how to change the admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your WP Admin Username
By default, on all new WordPress installations, the first registered user is the administrator.
Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it can out your WordPress site at risk …
Let’s change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure user name.
There are a number of ways to access your “Profile” section and view your username details after logging into your WP site admin area:
Select the Users > All Users page in your main menu …
Click on your username, 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 admin area …
You can also access your “Profile” area by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin menu.
What you will discover in the Profile area, however, is that you can’t change your username from your Dashboard section …
So, how can you modify this username?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server and editing your server files or WordPress database:
First, create a new user …
Next, create a new user name, and assign the new user the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
You should now have a new admin user with a new username, plus the original username (i.e. “admin”) …
Log out of your WordPress admin area …
Log in with your new admin details …
You should see your new user name details displayed in the “Howdy, User” panel …
Click on Users > All Users in your main menu …
You can now delete your old user account …
Select the option to assign all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old user account …
You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin username …
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 intended 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 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 Username Inside The WordPress Database
For our example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server admin account …
cPanel admin area
Navigate 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 that you choose the correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users in the “Table” column on the left-hand side …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the field 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 when you’re finished and return to your WordPress site. You may find that your session has expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin credentials …
You will see that the user name has been updated. However, it will probably still display the previous “nickname” …
To edit the “nickname”, visit your Users area and click the Edit link below your username …
You can also get to the 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 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 username and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change the WordPress admin user name on your website.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)