I recently discovered that my login username appears in the author archive URL visible to blog users. So, I wanted to change it, but then I realized it’s impossible to change your WordPress username directly without a little workaround.
WordPress doesn’t offer a built-in tool or option to change the username. Once you set it, you’re stuck with it.
Luckily, I found three methods to change the WordPress login username without breaking the site or logging yourself out. I’ll share these methods with you in today’s post.
After reading this post, you can confidently delete your old username and create a new one.
Without wasting more time, let’s get into it.
Why You May Want to Change Your WordPress Username
There are many reasons to change your WordPress login username. Often, it comes down to tightening security.
Hackers use different methods to explore security vulnerabilities and force their way into your site’s backend. This includes brute-force attacks and automated login attempts that try many username and password combinations.
Mostly, they try common usernames like admin with random passwords. If your username is similar to the admin’s or you use an easy-to-guess username, consider changing it now.
Another reason you might need to change your username is if it’s similar to another author on the same blog. Changing it to something unique and known only to you improves account security.
If you’ve transferred the blog to another user, the new user must change the account username accordingly. This prevents previous users from accessing the site.
These are just a few examples of situations where changing your username is necessary. Regardless, think carefully before changing your admin username, as it has a big impact on WordPress site security.
How to Change WordPress Username
Let’s now discuss practical ways to update your username in WordPress. From simple methods suitable for beginners to advanced options for rare situations, I share a step-by-step guide to updating your username.
If you’re a beginner, consider the first two options.
Create a New User With Admin Access
The easiest way to change your username inside WordPress is to create a new user and delete the old one. This process is easy if you have administrative privileges.
Here is how it works:
Log in to your WordPress account and click Add New User under “Users.” On the next screen, enter your new user information as required.
Make sure you enter the correct details this time. Double-check the username and email address. WordPress automatically creates a new, strong password for the new user profile. You can change this to something else if you like.
You’ll need a different email ID to register a new user profile in WordPress. However, if you’re using Gmail for your WordPress account for the old user profile, you can also use the same.
By default, WordPress won’t allow using the same email ID for different user profiles on the same blog. However, there is a way to bypass this challenge when registering a new user profile.
This is what you need to do: Add a + sign after your Gmail username and include some letters. For example, let’s say your Gmail email address is jane[at]gmail.com. This will now read as jane+me[at]gmail.com.
This simple Gmail hack lets you receive your email in the same inbox, but WordPress will treat it as a different email address.
Next, change the user Role to administrator. This will ensure you have administrative access and can reassign posts to yourself after deleting the old user profile.
Click Add New User to create the profile.
After creating the profile, log out of WordPress and log in again with the new user profile you just created. Go to the All Users page and find the old user account. Click it and proceed to delete the account.
WordPress will ask you whether to reassign all posts to the new user profile. Click “Attribute All Posts to” and select your new user profile from the options. Then click Confirm Deletion to delete the old username and its profile.
At this stage, you have successfully deleted the old username. If you still prefer to use the email address associated with the old username, you can change the user profile email ID.
Use a Plugin
The next most straightforward way to modify your WordPress username is to use a plugin such as Easy Username Updater. This plugin makes it easy for beginners to change their WordPress username.
Many username-changer plugins exist, but Easy Username Updater is the most beginner-friendly.
Download the plugin and activate it on your site. If you need to install a WordPress plugin, check out my article.
After the plugin is active, a new menu (Username Updater) will be added under Users in your WordPress dashboard. Click this new sub-menu and follow the next step guide.
Click Update, as shown in the image above.
This opens a new screen where you can enter your new username. Type your new username in the field and click Update Username. You can also click to send an email notification to the new user.
That’s it; you’ve updated the old username to a new one with a few clicks. This process is more straightforward and beginner-friendly. You can delete the plugin once the process is complete and you’ve double-checked that everything is okay.
WordPress Database phpMyAdmin
The last option for changing your WordPress username is through phpMyAdmin. This process is for advanced users because it is more complex. Any mistake here could break your site’s functionality and cause WordPress errors.
Even for advanced users, it should be considered a last resort.
However, updating your WordPress username via phpMyAdmin can help in some situations, such as when you can’t remember your username and email address. This is unlikely unless you’re not the owner of the site.
Log in to your web hosting account and locate phpMyAdmin. If your web host uses cPanel, this should be easy to locate. If you don’t see cPanel, your web host uses a custom dashboard, but phpMyAdmin will still be available.
Click it – this launches phpMyAdmin in a new browser. Your WordPress database is selected by default. Otherwise, select it.
You should see your WordPress tables by now. WordPress uses the “wp_” prefix by default if you have not changed this. Locate the wp_user table and click it.
On the new screen, click the Edit link next to the username you want to change.
On this screen, enter the new username. Type it into the user_login field.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Go to save your changes. You have successfully changed your WordPress blog username in phpMyAdmin.
Again, unless you have a specific reason for using this method, I strongly advise you to avoid it. The other two options discussed in this post are ideal and straightforward to implement.
Conclusion
WordPress username is one of the overlooked aspects of website security. In practical terms, a weak username can expose your blog to security breaches. So, it is not a matter of choice; a strong, hard-to-guess username is necessary.
This article showed you three methods to change your WordPress username and make it harder for cybercriminals to guess or access your site.
Beyond protecting your site, other reasons to change a WordPress site username include website branding or when you’ve sold the site to another marketer and need to remove your username from the blog.
Whatever the case, you’ve learned how to change a WordPress website username today.
