For security purposes, avoid setting up a WordPress site using the user name “admin”.
This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the first areas of potential vulnerabilities that hackers look for in the WordPress platform.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to change the admin username in WordPress to a more secure user name.
How To Change Your WP Admin User Name
Generally, on all new WordPress sites, the first registered user is the admin.
The default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it puts your WordPress site at risk …
Let’s change your admin user name in WordPress to a more secure user name.
There are several ways to access your “Profile” section and view your user name details after logging into WordPress:
Click on the Users > All Users screen in your main menu …
Click on your user name, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse …
Or, select Edit My Profile from the “Howdy, User” drop down menu near the top-right hand corner of your admin area …
You can also access your “Profile” area by selecting Users > Your Profile from the admin sidebar menu.
What you will discover in the Profile area, however, is that user names can’t be changed from the Dashboard …
So, how do you change 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:
Click Add New to create a new user …
Next, create a better user name, and assign this new user account the role of “Administrator”. Remember to save your changes to update your settings …
A new admin user should now be displaying …
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 …
Click on Users > All Users in the main menu …
You can now delete your old user account …
Select the option to attribute all content owned by the old user 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 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 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:
How To Change A Username Inside The WordPress Database
In the example below, the server is using the cPanel management software …
cPanel
Log into your server control panel …
cPanel administration area
Scroll down to the “Databases” section and click on 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 correct one …
phpMyAdmin databases
Don’t worry about the complicated-looking screen.
Click on wp_users …
The username is located in the “user login” column. To edit the field just 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 the new user name …
Log out of your server if you’re done and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You may find that your session is expired. Log in again with your new administration login credentials …
You will see that the user name is now updated. However, your site will probably still be displaying the old “nickname” …
To edit the “nickname”, open your Users area and click the Edit link below the user name …
You can also access the Profile section by clicking 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 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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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum