WordPress Usernames Cannot Be Changed
But WordPress display names can be!
And usually that will solve your main problem, which is how a user’s name appears on your site.
If you want to update the “Display Name Publicly As” setting for one of your WordPress users, go to WordPress => Users => Edit the user => and update the display name to your desired format (as pictured in the screenshot below):
However, sometimes you need to change the public display name for ALL of your WordPress users, or, for all users in a certain WordPress user role.
You may even want to to apply the changes to all existing users so that their public display name is preset to a certain format by default.
In this case you’ll need to use a WordPress plugin that I had developed for this exact purpose, called WP Display Name Publicly As (clever plugin title, I know!)
==> Click HERE to get the plugin.
Table of Contents
How does the WP Display Name Publicly As plugin work?
Here’s a short video explanation that shows how to install and use this plugin, and below it is a text version if you prefer:
Text Explanation
1 – Install the plugin by uploading the .zip file in WordPress => Plugins => Add New.
2 – Activate the plugin.
3 – In the WordPress => Users tab you’ll now see a new option that says “Publicity Names”:
Click on this link.
4 – You’ll now see the following screen:
The column indicated by figure (A) in the screenshot above contains a list of ALL of your WordPress user roles that you have created.
The column indicated by figure (B) contains a dropdown of the available public display name options:
And the column indicated by Figure (C) contains checkboxes that allow you to apply the public display name settings to ALL current users for that role (or not).
5 – Once you make your selections, scroll down and click the Save button.
Et voilá! Your updates have now been applied, and that’s all there is to it.
Custom Display Name Form
1 – In the WordPress => Users tab you’ll now see a new option that says “Publicity Names”:
2 – Enable the custom form setting by ticking the box:
3 – Edit the page where you need the form to be located and add the following shortcode
[custom_display_name]
4 – View the page where you added the shortcode. You should see something like this:
Add New Display Name Combinations
Why did we develop WP Display Name Publicly As?
Three of our MemberFix customers, at different times, needed to be able to edit the default public display names in WordPress to play nice with their forum software.
e.g. Simple:Press, Xenforo, and IPBoard, respectively…
Many forum applications, and other apps (like WooCommerce), pull the display name directly from the WordPress user database.
(Which is why developed a sister plugin that lets you change BuddyPress usernames and slugs).
If the public display name is set to something like your email address, or your nickname, that’s not going to look very good in a forum, where people generally want to address each other by their first names.
Or alternatively, you may wish to completely anonymize your community / forum by setting the public display name to the nickname or email address, as was the case for my Xenforo customer, who runs a membership site of a more sensitive nature.
Unfortunately we couldn’t find any cheap solutions through my usual method of Googling for hours, scouring StackOverflow, and trying to piece together a solution (this is exacerbated by the fact that I’m NOT a developer, nor do I play one on TV!)
So we just developed this little beauty ourselves instead! 🙂
Will you provide support for this plugin?
Absolutely!
Please feel free to leave your questions in the comments section of this post.
So if you have any questions or issues please come back to this post and leave a comment describing them (you can also upload screenshots in the comments).
We will provide email support at support@memberfix.freshdesk.com but using comments instead, everybody benefits from the conversation and explanations, including existing and potential customers. 🙂
It also fosters transparency which improves the direction of development by involving our entire community.
Thanks!
What are some use cases for WP Display Name Publicly As?
Use Case #1 – Changing default display names in SimplePress
I set up the Simple:Press forum for one of my MemberFix customers. Simple:Press is a WordPress-based forum software so it pulls user data directly from the WP User database.
However, the customer didn’t like the default display names for certain roles, so I installed this plugin to configure the display name to her preferences.
Use Case #2 – Invision Power Forum display names
Invision Power board – aka IPBoard – is one of the coolest forum apps I’ve worked with. It isn’t WordPress based but it does pull it’s user data and roles from WordPress through a Single Sign On bridge plugin.
In the case of the customer I set this up for, she wanted all of her members’ public display names to be their first names only. So I installed this plugin, made the updates, and boom! Now her entire forum is on a first-name basis. 🙂
Use Case #3 – WooCommerce My Account Page
The WooCommerce My Account page pulls its data from WordPress. So if you want to greet visitors to their My Account page using their first name, for example, you can set their default public display name to be First Name.
You can do this for SOME user roles only – like subscribers or customers – or ALL user roles. This can also be useful if you’re using WooCommerce Subscriptions to manage memberships.
Use Case #4 – Anonymize your forum / community
If your site deals with a sensitive subject matter and you’d prefer to keep your members anonymous, the WP Display Name Publicly As plugin can do that for you.
Just select your role, and update the public display name to be either nickname, email or username. If these aren’t anonymous enough, advise your users to update their Nicknames inside of WordPress, and then set the public display name to Nickname.
Use Case #5 – Changing default display names for new MemberPress users
By default, MemberPress sets the “display name publicly as” value for new members to their email address.
But if you run any kind of community on your MemberPress based membership site, this isn’t really ideal.
So using our plugin you can change this default setting to something more user friendly.
*Thanks to MLB in the comments below for bringing the original MemberPress conflict to our attention so we could fix it and make our plugin compatible with it!
How can I download the WP Display Public Name As plugin?
We offer this plugin for sale for $15. If you’d like to purchase it please complete the checkout below.
You’ll gain access after checkout.
Secure Checkout
Change Display Name Publicly As Plugin
Then go to your WordPress installation => Plugins => Add new => Upload and upload the zip file.
Activate the plugin.
Then you’ll find a new link in your Users submenu called WP Publicity Names.
The rest should be fairly intuitive.
Enjoy!
Leave your review!
Have you downloaded and tried our plugin? Leave your review here to help others 🙂
What do you think of this plugin? 14.97-179.97
Name: WP Display Name Publicly As WordPress Plugin
Description: This plugin lets you change the public display name for ALL of your WordPress users, or, for all users in a certain WordPress user role. You can also apply the changes to all existing users so that their public display name is preset to a certain format by default.
Offer price: 14.97-179.97
Currency: USD
Application Category: WordPress Plugin
Thanks a lot, I used this together with WP User Frontend plugin and it works perfect. Keep up the good work!
You’re welcome Victor! 🙂 Enjoy
It would be really nice to have an option that applies the change also to new members automatically. Now, it only applies to existing users and I have to run the plugin every time a new member registers an account.
Hey Victor, yes I agree. 🙂 We had this plugin developed for a customer and decided to offer it to our audience. Since that is the case, we’re offering it “as is” with no guarantee or support. However, that kind of option should be extremely easy to implement by a developer for under $50.
If you need it done specifically I could have one of our team members do it. Would be pretty quick, cheap, and it would give us a chance to update it for WP 5.0.
Let me know your thoughts!
V
Vic, I don’t know if it was added or not, but I’d be willing to chip in a little for it. Again, I’m using it for a non-profit club, but I think it’d be worth it.
Hi Matthew,
We just double check the plugin and it is working with WordPress 5.0+ so you should be able to use it now.
Please let us know if it is working now for you too.
Thanks!
Sorin
Vic – I just downloaded this plug-in nad installed it on my 5.0 site and I don’t see the menu option for your plugin at all. I do need a plugin like this and I would also need it to work for all current users and all new users. Have you updated this yet? I would also be willing to chip in to get this plugin updatd and fixed. Maybe Matthew and myself can go in and have it finished up.
cheers
Paul
Hi Paul,
In order to see the link, you need to hover your mouse on the “Users” menu item in your WordPress dashboard and there you will have some more options. You should be able to see the link there, it’s called “Publicity Names”.
If you still can’t see it, please send us a screenshot with what you see when you hover the “Users” item.
Thanks!
Sorin
Hey! I’d also like to use this plugin if it also applies the changes to all new users registering. Is it possible yet? It would be the only of it’s kind because I’ve been looking around the whole internet for something similar without any luck!
With best regards,
banan
Hi Banan,
The plugin is working proactively too. It applies the settings to the new users too.
I just wanted to say thanks for the plugin. I used it on our club’s website, though I will admin… I did modify it. I added an option for “Username – First_Name”.
You’re welcome Matthew, happy to be of service!
Vic, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this plugin. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Hi Yumiko,
You are most welcome!
Best,
Sorin
Hi, thanks for creating this and making it available for free. When I tried using it, the popup appeared and I clicked OK to update the user display names, but nothing happened. I tried several times. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the kind words @Very Siberian! I just tested the plugin and it works fine on our end. You might want to try deactivating all of your other plugins temporarily and attempting the update again. Or maybe even try in a different browser. Let me know if that works.
Hello Vic,
Thanks for this plugin since this is exactly what I was looking for. I just bought it but unforunately it is not working 🙁
So I tried everything you said (desactivating every other plugin, changed theme to twenty nineteen, ..) but it keeps not working at all.
I just noticed a very curious behaviour (that might help you): I’ve imported a lot of users and it’s not working on thess users whereas it’s working on users which account has been settled throught the regular creating account process.
Thanks in advance,
Olivier
Hi Olivier,
Thanks for your comment and thank you for your business! I’m sorry you’re having issues with the plugin, let me and my team help you. 🙂
In the first place, we actually released a new version of the plugin shortly after you bought it, and I sent out an email with the updated file. Not sure if you got that but I went ahead and personally emailed you with it just to be sure.
Could you please give it a shot with the new version and let us know how it goes?
Thanks!
Vic
Hello Vic,
Thanks for your quick answer !
Yes i forgot to mentionned that I’ve tried with the new version and unfortunately, it is not working either 🙁
Thanks Olivier, we’ve sorted you out already through email. 🙂 And we’ve released a new update to cover the issues we’ve encountered.
This is a wonderful plugin which I was looking for, but unfortunately, it is not working well for me.
For the existing users, yes, it works fine, but for new users it is not doing anything, which is most important to myself, I am using WordPress 4.9.
Any fixes for this? If you give me a piece of code, I can change what is necessary and will appreciate this so much.
Thanks and regards,
Yeah, it’s not working proactively for me either. I can apply it to previous users, but not new ones.
I’m using WordPress 5.2,2, is this going to be updated so that it works again?
We have tested the plugin with both 4.9 and 5.2.2 and I can confirm that it works with that. Although, there might be a conflict between plugins or themes. We noticed a few errors in the actual version that could cause conflicts, we are already working on an update. We’ll release it soon! In the meantime, what you could do is to try to deactivate all the other plugins and use the default Twentynineteen theme from WordPress to see if it is an actual conflict. If you find that there is a conflict please let us know so we will… Read more »
The module isn’t working proactively for me, and I have read it in the comments section, you’re preparing a new release to fix this. In the meantime, I’d like to add a cron job to run save button every hour/or every day.
Is that possible? What would be the hook name or php event can I use to make this happen?
We just released a new update that should fix your issue.
New version released!
We officially released version 1.2.0. In this version we made the following changes:
– Fixed some compatibility bugs with other plugins
– Security improvements (internal AJAX calls)
– Changed naming convention to follow WordPress repository requirements
– Other small changes
Hi there,
I ran the plugin but am having issues. I have a large DB of users. Only a portion of existing users got the update. So I switched to the 2017 theme and disabled plugins. Still no luck.
I tried to uncheck the “Column C” checkbox on Subscribers, hit save, refresh, check the box, hit save again. Still no luck. Is there any way to keep the update moving all the way through the user base?
Thank you!
Hi Ed, It sounds like a timeout error. A timeout error is an error thrown by the server when a script execution takes longer than a predefined value. And in this case having a large user base would require the script to run for a while and that’s probably the reason it stops after 9000 users. In this case, I would recommend you to contact your hosting provider and ask them to increase your “max_execution_time” value to a higher value. But please make sure to ask them to switch it back after you change the display name of your existing… Read more »
New version released!
We officially released version 1.3.0. In this version we made the following changes:
– Changed the user changing process to a backend approach
– Changed a few UI/UX elements to match the new processing type
– Other few small changes
Woohoo! Just a bit more detail for everybody on this new release: We had an issue with a customer running this plugin on a rather large site with thousands of members. The updating process kept timing out. So we came up with a way to run this process in the background without the possibility of it timing out! 🙂 We also added a “waiting” graphic to the UX so you can see while the process is going. I believe—correct me if I’m wrong, Sorin—that even if you leave the page after you initiate the process, the updating will continue in… Read more »
Hi Victor,
Just bought your replace display name plugin but it doesn’t seem to be working for new names.
I can reset existing names successfully (which is helpful) but whenever a new user is created (I am using MemberPress), the display name is overwritten with the email.
Any suggestions?
Hi MBL,
Thank you for your feedback!
We just found out a MemberPress conflict thanks to your feedback. We are working on a solution for the conflict as we speak.
We will release an update for that problem soon!
Hello,
My plugin dit not work.
Hi Wagner,
Did you check the checkbox positioned in the right of the field called “Apply to current users?”?
WHERE IS MY SUPPORT ??? I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!
Hi Wagner,
Our lead developer Sorin already responded to you in the comment above, 4 days ago.
I even emailed you privately after Sorin left his comment to let you know about it!
Please look above this comment and answer Sorin’s question, and provide him with the details so we can get your problem resolved. 🙂 We’re here to help!
Best,
Vic
I have not received any emails and as you can see there is no other reply here on this page. I already sent screens showing the error and got NO RETURN. DEFINITELY, tell me an EMAIL for support or return my money.
I´m not happy with this situation.
Hi Wagner, 1. Of course, you can email me anytime at victor.dorfman@gmail.com. 🙂 2. In reality, I’ve emailed you twice already. (Please see the attached screenshot.) The first time was on the day you bought the plugin (Sep 5). The second time was just a few minutes before you left this comment. And I can see that you’ve already replied to that one. 3. You can see by the timestamp in the comment from Sorin above that he replied to you with a clarification question and that we are here to help and support you. Perhaps for some reason you… Read more »
Hey Guys,
Thank you so much for your plugin. I just bought it and activated it and it seems to do exactly what it supposed to. Yess!
But in the comments here I read that you can automaticly let the settings apply to new users for some extra work.
Is that still possible? I would love that costumers and subscribers are automatically shown by their firstname.
Hi Scarlet,
I’m pleased to hear that!
Yes, the plugin has that functionality even if it’s not perfect yet. We are going to release an update soon. It will improve that functionality and a few other parts of the plugin.
It should be coming out in a few days. You’ll get notified by email when the new version will be live.
In the meantime, if you have any questions. Please don’t hesitate to ask me!
New version released!
We officially released version 1.4.0. In this version we made the following changes:
– Improved the previous user processing method
– Fixed a conflict with MemberPress
– Improved the UX for the waiting time
– Other few small changes
Recently we found out 2 particularities that might happen when using the Display Name Publicly As plugin. We found them thanks to the support requests that we are receiving here in the comments. 1 – If you are hosted on WPEngine and you have a large user base (+10.000 members). Please try to affect the existing users on an external hosting. Like localhost or even some other hosting solution that you might use. WPEngine has a different approach to PHP limitations and it won’t allow more than 10.000 users to be modified at once. That might change in time, that’s… Read more »
Was there ever a solution or workaround for WPEngine users?
Hi Jake,
Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do on our end for the WPEngine sites.
However, the problem is only for the scenarios where the website owner is updating the existing members and the total number of members is around 10.000 or more.
Thanks!
Hi guys,
I’m using MemberPress + WPForo on my membership site. I just bought this plugin but unfortunately it didn’t worked neither for new users, nor for existing users. I don’t know if the website language may be the cause (I’m using WP in Spanish – Mexico). I hope you can help me here 😉
Thanks,
Billy
Hi Billy,
I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
We previously tested the plugin in that scenario and it worked. So this might mean that there is something blocking it on your site.
I just sent you an email where I’m asking for access to your website so I can investigate this further.
Thanks!
Sorin
Hello – I just bought this plugin and I’m using Profile Builder Pro (https://www.cozmoslabs.com/wordpress-profile-builder/) for user profile management. I set the plugin setting as “Nickname” for all display name but when user updated their nickname the “display name as” filed doesn’t get updated. Any thoughts?
Thanks for your comment, Diver. I’ve connected with you over email and we’ll help you out there. 🙂
Hello, it is May 2020 and the plugin doesn’t seem to work for new user. From your comments below, I see that you claimed to be working on a release for that(As at September 2020). Please what’s happening with that?
Hi O.V,
Thanks for your comment! I just sent you an email, I’m going to need you to provide me a little bit more details about your current setup so I can help you out.
New Version Released!
We just released the version 1.3.3!
The new version includes a small fix for the websites that are using Gravity Forms User Registration Add-on.
NEW VERSION RELEASED!
We released a new version of the plugin that makes it compatible with MemberPress!
Hi all,
I assumed the plugin working for all registered users from registration already. I had difficulties to implement it on my own, which brought me to the decision buying this plugin instead. Basically, the feature only able to update the display name and not setting a display name as default does not solve my issue. Is there an update planned or can this one be implemented?
Thanks!
Hi Florian,
I replied to your support ticket, but I’ll also reply here so that other people can get an answer to their questions about that.
The plugin does have the functionality of setting the display name for all new users. But sometimes other plugins overwrite that and cause a conflict.
To be able to help you diagnose that, we’ll need to get access to your site to help you track the conflict and recommend a solution.
Please see the email I’ve sent you about the access request.
Thanks!
Hi, when i try to save the settings it throws a wp-admin/admin-ajax.php 400 error. Ho can i fix this?
it was the cache plugin. now it works. Is there a way to get the display name from some other user_meta?
Hi Davide,
I’m happy you were able to figure out the caching issue!
At the moment the only available fields for the display name are the ones in the dropdown.
However, we can help you add custom user meta to the dropdown for your specific use case.
I’ll send you an email with a bit more details about how that process would look like.
Thanks!
Sorin
NEW VERSION RELEASED!
Version 1.5 – Changes
1 – Support for custom user meta
2 – A shortcode that adds a form for the users to set their own custom display name.
Please check the article for details on how to use the shortcode.
I just purchased and installed the plugin and it does not change the display name at all. I am using Buddypress.
Hi Joshua,
We are aware of a conflict with some BuddyPress functionalities which overwrite the display name upon update.
We have an update on our list that will fix that conflict. However, we don’t have an ETA on that yet.
Thanks!
NEW VERSION RELEASED!
Version 1.6 – Changes
Fixed known conflict with BuddyPress and other plugins that were overwriting the display name change for newly registered users.
I have purchased and installed the plugin. It works fine with existing users. But not for the new register user. Can you suggest any method to deal with new user’s display name?
Hi Steve,
Thanks for reaching out!
We’ve received your email with the issue and replied there. But I’ll also answer here, perhaps it will help other users too.
If you are using a third-party plugin for your site’s registration component, that third-party plugin may overwrite the default display name process of WordPress. And therefore it bypasses our plugin.
Please check the email we’ve sent you for the next step of the diagnosis.
Thanks!
i just order this plugin now, when there is new update, how will know about it or get download link ?
Hi Sherif,
Thanks for reaching out!
When new versions are released we are sending an email to our buyers list with download links and details about the updates.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
that is nice and good work for this nice plugin
but what abut you open live chat or ticket system, in case someone need help and he cant post full info here / or by mail.