Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different User Name

For security reasons, you should never install WordPress sites using the user name "admin".

This is the default installation username for WordPress and one of the leading causes of brute force attacks on the WordPress platform.

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A More Secure Username

In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll show you how to change your WordPress admin username from 'admin' to a more secure username.

How To Change Your Username in WordPress Step by Step

Normally, with all new WordPress installations, the first user is the admin of the website or blog.

Having the default WordPress username admin is not recommended, as it poses a security risk to your WordPress site ...

How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

Let's change your WordPress admin username to a more secure username.

There are several ways to access your "Profile" section and view your username details inside WordPress:

Select the Users > All Users section in your main menu ...

Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different Username

Click on the user name, or the Edit link when hovering over the username with your mouse ...

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

Or, select Edit My Profile from the "Howdy, User" menu at the top-right hand corner of your Dashboard ...

How To Change Your WP Admin Username To A More Secure Username

You can also go to your "Profile" section by selecting Users > Your Profile from your admin sidebar menu.

What you will see in the Profile page, however, is that your user name can't be changed inside your Dashboard ...

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress To Another Username

So, how can you edit a admin username?

If your WordPress user name is "admin," here's the easiest way to change your user name without going into your server:

First, create a new user ...

Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name To Another User Name

Next, create a more secure username, and assign this new user the role of "Administrator". Remember to save your changes to update your settings ...

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

You have now added a new user with the role of admin ...

Changing Your WP Username From Admin To A Different Username

Logout of your WordPress admin area ...

How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

Changing Your WordPress Admin Username To Another User Name

You should see your new username details in the "Howdy, User" screen ...

Changing Your WP Admin User Name

Select Users > All Users in the main menu ...

Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You can now delete the old administrator account ...

How To Change Your WP Username From Admin To A More Secure User Name

Select the option to attribute all content owned by the old user account and reassigned it to the new admin, then confirm the deletion of the old account ...

How To Change Your WordPress Admin User Name

You are now left with only the new Admin account, effectively changing your WordPress admin user name ...

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name To Another User Name

Although this tutorial is mostly aimed 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.

Changing Your User Name Inside The WordPress Database

In the example below, the server uses cPanel ...

How To Change Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

cPanel

Log into your server control panel ...

How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To A Different Username

cPanel administration area

Navigate to the "Databases" section and click on phpMyAdmin ...

Changing Your WordPress Admin Username To Another Username

phpMyAdmin

Click on your WordPress database.

Note: If you have a number of databases set up on your domain, make sure you choose the correct one ...

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

phpMyAdmin databases

Don't worry about the complicated-looking screen.

Click on wp_users ...

How To Change Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure User Name

The user name is located in the "user login" column. To edit the field just double-click on this text you want to change ...

Changing Your WordPress Admin User Name To A Different Username

Type in the new user name and click outside the edit box to update the field with a new user name ...

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name To A Different Username

Log out of your server if you're finished and reopen the browser to your WordPress site. You will probably find that your session is expired. If so, log in again with your new Admin user name and password ...

How To Change Your Admin User Name In WordPress

You will see that your user name has been updated. However, it will probably still be displaying the old "nickname" ...

How To Change Your WP Admin User Name To A Different Username

To edit the "nickname", visit your Users area and click the Edit link below the user name ...

How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username

You can also reach the Profile section by clicking on the Edit My Profile link in the "Howdy, User" screen ...

How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username

Select a new name to display publicly from the drop-down menu ...

Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

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 ...

How To Change Your WordPress Username From Admin To Another User Name