One of the standout benefits of WordPress is the ability to add different authors for blog posts.
Most bloggers start out writing their own posts. As their blog grows, they may invite other bloggers to contribute.
Or they could convert their solo blog into a business and hire writers full-time to write the posts.
These writers can be given different levels of access to the WordPress dashboard to create content.
Each writer will be identified by the post author as created by the WordPress backend.
There will come a time when you need to change the post author for a blog post or two.
Once a blog post has been assigned an author can it be changed?
The good news is it can be changed. How? Do you create a new post author? Then create a new post and copy and paste the original post to it? Then assign it the new author name. Finally, delete the old post? No, you don’t have to.
If you do this, you’ll lose potential traffic and also whatever SEO benefits (link juice, etc) you’re enjoying through the old post.
If you would like to change your author name to a pseudonym, you can do it through this method explained below.
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How to Change Your Own Post Author Name
When you’re setting up WordPress, you’ll be asked for a username.
Usually, you’ll assign a short name that is easy to remember.
This username will be used to log in to your WordPress dashboard.
This will also be the default name for any WordPress post.
What if the username is a combination of a word, symbol, and numbers like jack@345.
You don’t want this to appear as your post author name, do you?
So, let’s see how you can change your default post author name to one that reflects your identity.
This is an example of a post that uses the username of the WordPress blog. Whenever a new post is created, this username will be listed under the blog post title.
It will also appear at the bottom of the post as shown below.
To change the post author name, log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Once there, scroll down to Users. Under Users select All Users.
Under All Users you’ll see the names of the users you have created for your WordPress Blog.
If you’re the only one writing blog posts, only your name will be there.
Hover your mouse over your username for the Edit function to appear.
Clicking on Edit will bring you to the following window.
The field where you want to change your name is under the Display name publicly as. The name you put in there will appear as the post author.
Go ahead and fill up the blank fields as in the example below.
After you’ve entered your preferred name, you can scroll down and hit the Update Profile button.
Now go back to your post to see if your author name has been updated.
You’ll also notice that the post author has been updated at the end of the post.
How to Change One Post Author Name with Another
What if you want to switch one post author name with another? Say you have a series of posts under one author name and you want to switch it to another author name.
First of all, you need to ensure that the new author name is available in the users’ list. If it doesn’t, go ahead and create one.
To do this go to Users on your WordPress dashboard.
You can change the author name for a single post or you can switch author names for a series of posts.
Changing Author Name for a Single Post
Head to your list of posts on your dashboard. Click on All Posts.
Before you change the name of the author you must ensure that the Author function is enabled under Screen Options on the top right-hand corner.
Click on the drop-down menu and you’ll see the complete list of options. Check to see whether the author column is ticked.
Next, choose the post for which you want to change the author name. Click on Edit.
Under the Post panel, you’ll see options for author names.
Choose the author name you want. Then save or update the post.
Then go back to the post list and check whether the author name has been changed.
How to Change Author Name for a Series of Posts
If you want to change the post author name for a series of posts, you don’t have to do it one by one, as explained in the method above.
To change the author name for a series of posts, head to the posts list. Under Bulk Actions choose Edit. Then click on Apply.
In the Bulk Edit window, click on the Author drop-down menu and choose your preferred author name.
Then click on Update.
Going back to the post list, you’ll see that the author name has been changed for the posts we selected.
That is how you change post author in WordPress.