WordPress Usernames: The good, the bad + the ugly

The good WordPress usernames

In the decade I’ve been managing websites, I’ve seen plenty of WordPress usernames that could be better. One of the username trends that I’d love to see go is simple to guess options. Because variations on your business name or your first name don’t leave much guesswork for hackers.

Which is why I don’t use tinyblueorange or alison as my WordPress usernames.

They are easy enough options for someone to quickly try when breaking into a site. And I don’t know about you, but I hate making things easier for hackers. Making their lives more difficult is what I do for fun.

The bad username

There’s only one bad username when it comes to WordPress. Because it used to be the default username, but they’ve improved the setup to ditch this practice.

If your WordPress username is admin — or any variation of that — change it ASAP!

By using the default for your WordPress usernames, you’re making it so much easier for hackers to break into your website. Which, in turn, means that you are putting your business investment + client relations at risk.

The good news in this bad username is that ditching “admin” isn’t that tough to do.

The ugly WordPress usernames

Are you ready to make hacking your login screen close to impossible? You might be surprised to learn that picking an ugly option is the way to go. Like seriously ugly. Fugly even.

Before you scratch your head + ask “how do you make WordPress usernames ugly,” let’s cover the options. Did you know that you aren’t limited to only letters + numbers for usernames? They aren’t used very often, but you can use any or all of these characters:

  • letters
  • numbers
  • @
  • . (that tiny speck is a period, fyi)
  • _ (underscore)
  • – (hyphen)
  •   (yes, you can actually use a space within WordPress usernames)

While you have tons of character options, remember that usernames are not case sensitive. So you aren’t upping your security game by changing admin to aDMIn. In fact, that’s viewed as the same username by WordPress.

Some ugly options might be…

  • your full name with spaces
  • a favorite song title
  • your birthday with a full month + date — June 10th

Are you still not sure what username to use? Try this random username generator for some ideas.

How to change your username

Do your WordPress usernames fall outside of the ugly category? Carve out some time to change your username + suggest the same to anyone else with an account on your site.

If you’re not sure how, this tutorial post breaks down changing your WordPress username step-by-step. And then make sure your password is equally as ugly.

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