We all know that WordPress is the best blogging platform and millions are using self-hosted WordPress for their business. So, hackers and robots regularly try to hack admin accounts of famous WordPress websites. It is obvious that we are in a need to avoid the possibilities of giving clues for hacking. Using complex and lengthy password and installing security plugins are the best ways to make our WordPress site secure. There are some other concerns too. We should not reveal our WordPress admin username to others. If hackers know your username, they only need to find the password. This will make their job easier. So, we should choose a complex admin username too. We ought to treat admin username as a password. Never choose the username as ‘admin’. In this article you will learn about how to change WordPress admin username and nickname. I’ve explained some tasks that should be done immediately after installing WordPress in my previous post. Changing the admin username and nickname is one among them.
I started my WordPress blog just a month back (as of Feb 2015). But, till now ten unauthorized admin login attempts detected. I knew this from the alerts given by the security plugin Wordfence. That is why I say security is very important. WordPress has the option of choosing the admin username while installing. So, we can choose a complex username instead of ‘admin’. But, nickname is username by default. It will be visible in our articles.
Steps to Change WordPress Admin Username and Nickname
- Suppose you have chosen ‘iamadmin’ as your username while installing WordPress, in all your articles the author name would be ‘iamadmin’ and the author URL would be ‘http://yourdomain.com/author/iamadmin/’. Refer the screenshot given below.
- So, first you have to change the publicly displaying name. This can be done by editing the profile. Go to Users –> Your Profile and under the Name section, notice that the default admin nickname and display name are the admin username.
- Change the Nickname and Display name and Update Profile.
- Even after changing the nickname, the author URL would not have been changed in the articles. This is because we cannot change it from the dashboard. So, the hackers can find your admin username using the author URL.
- You have to use phpMyAdmin to change the admin nickname in the WordPress database. Login to your phpMyAdmin. Go to the database of your WordPress site and open the table wp_users.
- You will get the users’ details of your site. Edit the admin user details.
- The user_login column is the admin username and user_nickname column is the admin nickname. Change them and click on the Go button.
- Use ‘admin’ as your nickname to make the author URL as ‘http://yourdomain.com/author/admin/’ so that your visitors will know you are the admin of your site.
If you want to use the nickname that you have chosen when installing WordPress (i.e. The username would be your nickname after installing WordPress) and only wish to change the username, you can use the plugin ‘Admin renamer extended’ which makes the task easier. Install and activate the plugin. Then go to Plugins –> Admin renamer extended. Change the username. After that you have to login again to access the dashboard.
This just changes the admin username and not the nickname. To change the nickname you have to edit in the database.
Conclusion
We should keep both admin username and password safe. Revealing admin nickname does not have any security risks. But, WordPress registers admin username as nickname in the database at the time of installing. That means we need to change it after installing WordPress. You have learned about how to change the admin username and nickname. Hope it helps you. Your comments are most welcome regarding this.
Get the latest updates
in your inbox
Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.
Since Google is already a trusted and established brand as a consequence
of other services including Gmail, Google – Maps and Google – Places, everyone is prone to trust the Google+ platform is
a helpful tool as well. Another feature in the method is the so-called Google Circles.
But, its too early finally between Facebook and Google+.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog
and was wondering what all is needed to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% certain. Any
tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
Thanks for your comment. Please refer the articles given below.
1.How to start a blog – http://www.richinfo.site/how-to-start-a-blog/
2.Blog budget – http://www.richinfo.site/how-much-does-it-cost-to-start-a-blog/
Thanks.
Welcome.
This is the first thing I did after installing WordPress. Hope, others who read this article will also secure their WordPress sites.
I too hope so.
I like this website it’s a masterpiece! Glad I discovered this on google.
Loving the information on this website, you have done
an excellent job on the content.
Just want to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is simply great and
i can assume you’re an expert on this subject.
Fine with your permission let me to grab your feed to keep up to date with
forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the rewarding work.
As for as WordPress security is concerned we should not show the admin username to the visitors. Your step by step guide clearly explains how to solve this security issue. Thanks.
Hi to every body, it’s my first visit of this webpage; this
weblog carries amazing and genuinely excellent material useful for blogggers.
I am actually pleased to glance at this webpage posts which consists of plenty of useful facts, thanks for providing such information.
Heya fantastic blog! Does running a blog like this require a large amount of
work? I have virtually no knowledge of computer programming but I was hoping
to start my own blog in the near future. Anyway, if you
have any recommendations or tips for new blog owners
please share. I understand this is off subject nevertheless I just
needed to ask. Thanks a lot!
Here are some useful articles for you.
How to start your own blog – http://www.richinfo.site/how-to-start-a-blog/
Blog Budget – http://www.richinfo.site/how-much-does-it-cost-to-start-a-blog/
Blogging Tips – http://www.richinfo.site/tips-for-blogging/
Blog Ideas – http://www.richinfo.site/blog-ideas-make-money/
Oh my God! I’ve never heared this security issue. Now I changed my username and nickname. Thanks.
I am glad that it was useful for you.
Keep up the wonderful piece of work, I read
few posts on this site and I think that your web blog is actually appealing and contains lots
of outstanding information.
Thanks very interesting blog! Useful for each and every bloggers who blog on WordPress platform.
Normally I skim article on blogs, however I would like
to say that this write-up very forced me to read this article throughly.
You have given useful soultion for the wordpress security. Thanks, very great post.
You are welcome.
This is something I really have to apply on my blog to secure it, thank you for the post
I am truly thankful to the holder of this web page who has shared
this great post at at this time.