For security purposes, never install WordPress sites 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 the WordPress CMS.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to change the admin username in WordPress from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress To A Different User Name
Normally, on a new WordPress site, the first user is usually the site administrator.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it can out your site at risk of being attacked by hackers and bots …
Let’s change the WordPress admin user name from ‘admin’ to a more secure username.
There are a number of ways to view your username details after logging into your backend admin area:
Select the Users > All Users section in your main menu …
Click either on the user name, or the Edit link when hovering over the user name with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” dropdown menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard …
You can also access your “Profile” page by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin menu.
You will see when you get into the Profile area that your username can’t be changed inside your Dashboard …
So, how can you change a WordPress admin user name?
Change Admin Username By Creating A New Admin User
If your WordPress admin login is “admin,” here’s the easiest way to change this without going into your server:
Click Add New to create a new user …
Next, create a better username, and assign the new user account the role of “Administrator”. Save your changes 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 the new admin details for the user you have just created …
You should see your new user name details in the “Howdy, User” screen …
Select Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete the old user account …
Choose 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 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 mostly designed for non-technical WordPress users, let’s go one step further and show you how to change your 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:
Changing Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database
For our example, we’ll be working with cPanel …
cPanel
Log into your server administration account …
cPanel administration area
Find the “Databases” section and open up phpMyAdmin …
phpMyAdmin
Click on your WordPress database.
Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure that you select the right one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t panic when you see the technical-looking nature of the information on your 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 this text you want to change …
Type in the new username and click outside the edit box to update the field with the new username …
Log out of your server if you’re done and go back to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new administration login credentials …
You should see that the user name is now updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To choose a new “nickname”, access your Users screen and click on the Edit link below your username …
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 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 user name and nickname …
Congratulations! Now you know how to change your WordPress admin username on your website.
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum