How to Change Your WordPress Username: 3 Effective Methods

As your website grows, you’ll naturally want to tweak or modify certain elements, such as your WordPress username.

Unfortunately, WordPress does not include any built-in functionality to change your username. When you go to the “Users” tab and select “Profile ,” you will see a grey field with a message that says “Username cannot be changed . ”

Therefore, you need to find a way to change your username.

In this article, we’ll walk through the process of changing your username using three alternative methods – editing your WordPress database, creating a new user, and using a plugin. But let’s first discuss why changing your WordPress username might be a good idea.

Reasons to Change Your WordPress Username

Your WordPress username and password are important elements that grant access to your website.

With this in mind, security is one of the most common reasons for wanting to change your WordPress username.

Hackers can use automated tools to find your vulnerabilities and exploit them. Examples of these include brute force and dictionary attacks, where bots make multiple, repeated attempts to guess your login credentials. In fact, brute force attacks increased 274% in the last four months of 2021.

Since generic WordPress usernames (like admin) are easier to guess, they pose a big risk to your website.

In addition to security reasons, you may also want to change your WordPress username for the following reasons:

It sounds too similar to other usernames on your WordPress site.
A new WordPress username might be better suited to your site’s new brand or content.
You made a typo or other error when setting your username.
The site or account is being transferred to someone else and you want to change the name accordingly.

Whatever your reason, choosing a new username is something you should consider carefully as it can affect the security of your WordPress site.

How to Change Your WordPress Username

Now, let’s learn how to change your WordPress username.

1. Use your WordPress database

The first way to change your username is to edit your site’s database through phpMyAdmin . This method requires some technical expertise and can be challenging for beginners.

Here’s a quick overview of how to change your WordPress username using the database:

Access phpMyAdmin through your hosting panel.
Select the wp_users table.
Find the user under the user_login column.
Click the Edit button next to the username you want to change.
Find the user_login row and enter the new username in the Value field.
Click Go to save the changes.

With this in mind, be sure to follow the instructions carefully to avoid any mistakes.

Important! We recommend that you create a backup before modifying your database. This way, if something goes wrong, you can restore your website.

Navigate to your WordPress hosting account panel to access phpMyAdmin. Hostinger users can simply log in to the hPanel, go to the Databases section, and click on the phpMyAdmin menu.

Find your WordPress site's database and click Enter phpMyAdmin .

Once you have successfully entered your phpMyAdmin dashboard, click on the wp_users table. The name of the table may vary depending on your web host, but it usually ends with _users.

Accessing the wp_users table will display a list of all user accounts on your WordPress site.

Go ahead and look for your user account under the user_login column.
Once found, click Edit on the row for the username you want to change .

You will see a list of all the values associated with your account, from its password to its domain name. Find the user_login row and enter your new username in the **** Value field.

There is also a row called user_nicename which contains your actual username - typically, this should have the same value as user_login.

You'll also notice the Display Name line, which refers to the name that appears next to your blog posts and profile pages. Feel free to change this value to match your current username.

After that, tap the “Go” button at the bottom of the screen.

For cPanel users, navigate to the Databases section on your dashboard and click on the phpMyAdmin menu.

Then, follow the same steps to change your WordPress username.

2. Create a new WordPress user and delete the old one

The next way to change your WordPress username is to replace your old WordPress account with a new one. Unlike the previous method, this one is more straightforward.

Check out a quick overview of how to change your WordPress username by creating a new user:

Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Users section, Add New tab.
Enter a new username, making sure to include a different email address.
Assign the new user the Administrator role and click the Add New User button.
Sign out of your account and sign in using your new credentials.
Navigate to the All Users tab and find the user with the old credentials.
Delete the old user and assign all content to the new user.

In this section, we will show you an example of how to create a new WordPress administrator account and transfer all permissions and blog post authorship from the old username.

Log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Users -> Add New tab. On the next page, you will be able to set all the parameters required to create a new WordPress user, including its username, email address, and password.

Enter your new username in the field provided. Currently, you need to enter a different email address than the one you used for your old administrator account. However, you can change it back to your primary address later.
Before saving your newly created username, make sure to assign it the Administrator role - this will ensure that your new account has all of the same permissions as the old Admin user account.
Once finished, click the Add New User button.

Now, save your new account, log out, and then log back in using your new credentials.
Return to the All Users tab, find the old admin username, and click the Associate button underneath it to delete the old user.

As a super administrator, you can delete other accounts. During this process, WordPress will ask you if you want to reassign the contents of the old WordPress username to the new username.

Select Owner all content under and select your new administrator account from the drop-down menu.
Then, click the Confirm Deletion button.

Your old WordPress account will then be deleted and a new account will be set up along with all permissions and posts that belonged to that account.

3. Use plugins

The easiest way to change your username on WordPress is to use a plugin. The Username Changer plugin allows you to update your old account directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Here are the quick steps to change your WordPress username using a plugin:

Install the Username Changer plugin.
Navigate to plugin settings under the User section.
Click Update next to the username you want to update.
Enter the new username and click the Update Username button.

There are a variety of username changing plugins you can use to achieve this. In this article, we’ll use Easy Username Updater as an example.

Once you install and activate the WordPress plugin, a new Easy Username Updater submenu will appear under the Users section. Click on it and you will see a list of users along with their email addresses, roles, and user IDs.

The plugin displays up to 25 users per page and allows you to search for specific usernames for easier navigation. Click the Update button to change your username. In this example, we will change the username of our test account.

A new screen will appear where you can make the change - just enter your desired username in the “New Username” field. In this example, we’ll change the username from our test account to the guest account.

You can also send an email to the user about their updated username by clicking the checkbox. Once you are done, click on the Update Username button for the changes to take effect. Don’t forget to double-check the user list and make sure the username has been changed.

The method will vary depending on which username changer you are using. If your plugin is not working properly, make sure it is compatible with other installed plugins.

Of all the methods, plugins are the quickest and easiest way to change the default username in WordPress. If you are still using admin as your WordPress login name, follow any of the above methods to make your WP blog more secure.

Let us know if you updated your username as well. Don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter to receive more WordPress security tips.

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