Do you want to change or remove the ‘Howdy’ greeting in the WordPress admin bar?
Many people never use the word “howdy” in real life. You might like to change it to a greeting that sounds more familiar.
In this article, we’ll show you how to change or remove ‘Howdy Admin’ with 3 easy solutions.
Why Change or Remove ‘Howdy Admin’?
Whenever a user logs into the dashboard of their WordPress website, they are greeted by the word ‘Howdy’ followed by their display name.
For example, if John Smith logged in, then he’d see the words ‘Howdy, John Smith’ near the top right of the screen.
That greeting might not sound natural to some users. ‘Howdy’ is short for ‘How do you do?’, but many English speakers never use the word. It may sound out of place, outdated, or even a bit annoying.
Luckily, you can change the greeting to something that sounds more familiar, like Welcome, Hello, Hey, or Hi. You can also leave it out entirely, so you’ll just see the user’s display name.
Changing or removing ‘Howdy Admin’ is very simple, so you can either watch the video below or scroll down if you prefer written instructions.
Video Tutorial
Change or Remove ‘Howdy Admin’ Using WPCode (Recommended)
You can change or remove ‘Howdy Admin’ without using a plugin by adding a custom code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file.
We don’t recommend editing your theme’s PHP files to inexperienced users, because even a small mistake could break your website.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, you can use WPCode to change or remove ‘Howdy Admin’ from your site. Not only is WPCode the most powerful code snippet plugin available for WordPress, but it also comes with a huge library of pre-made code snippets.
You’ll need to download and install the free WPCode plugin before you get started. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you just need to head to Code Snippets » Library and type ‘howdy’ into the search bar. A pre-made code snippet called ‘Change Howdy Admin in Admin Bar’ will appear as a result.
Simply hover over the snippet and click on ‘Use snippet’ to add it to your site.
You will then be taken to the ‘Edit Snippet’ page. Because you’re using a code snippet from the WPCode library, all of the options and settings are filled out for you.
All you need to do is click the toggle to ‘Active’ and then press the ‘Update’ button. You’ll immediately see a change in the upper-right of the screen where the ‘Howdy Admin’ has changed to ‘Welcome Admin.’
To customize the greeting, simply change word in single quotes from ‘Howdy’ to whatever you want it to say. For example, you can change $new_howdy = 'Welcome,'; to $new_howdy = 'Hi there,'; to change the message to “Hi there, Admin.”
You can also choose to remove the greeting entirely, which will only show the username in the corner. To do this, delete everything between the single quotes so the line simply reads $new_howdy = '';.
If you’d like to return to the ‘Howdy’ greeting, then just toggle the switch back to ‘Inactive’ and click ‘Update’ once again.
We hope this article helped you learn how to customize the greeting in the WordPress backend. Next, see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting, or check out our list of must-have WordPress plugins to grow your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Jen says
Thank you so much! Worked like a charm!
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Luvuyo Wati says
Worked, thank you.
WPBeginner Support says
You’re welcome
Admin
Hadi El Jundi says
Works like a charm! Many thanks, my friend!
Noah Pascua says
Thank you. It works on mine.
simon says
hello can anyone help me?
I want to translate a string in wordpress theme
//
if($mt_o[‘mt_rewrite_doctor_name’]!=””) { $mt_cpt_doctors_name = $mt_o[‘mt_rewrite_doctor_name’]; } else { $mt_cpt_doctors_name = “Staff'”;}
//
i translated such :
if($mt_o[‘mt_rewrite_doctor_name’]!=””) { $mt_cpt_doctors_name = $mt_o[‘mt_rewrite_doctor_name’]; } else { $mt_cpt_doctors_name = __(‘Staff’,’madza_translate’);}
but it does not work!!!!
can you guy help me ? plz plz
Ast says
It doesnt work,,, after I use this code, wordpress (Version 4.2.2) admin panel cant load,, should remove this code..
David Labbe says
There is a much easier way to do this by using the old menu node values:
function np_replace_howdy($wp_admin_bar){
//New text to replace Howdy
$new_text = ‘Welcome’;
//Call up the ‘my-account’ menu node for current values.
$my_account = $wp_admin_bar->get_node(‘my-account’);
//Replace the ‘Howdy’ with new text with string replace
$new_title = str_replace(‘Howdy’, $new_text, $my_account->title);
//Rebuild the menu using the old node values and the new title.
$wp_admin_bar->add_menu(array(
‘id’ => $my_account->id,
‘parent’ => $my_account->parent,
‘title’ => $new_title,
‘href’ => $my_account->href,
‘group’ => $my_account->group,
‘meta’ => array(
‘class’ => $my_account->meta[‘class’],
‘title’ => $my_account->meta[‘title’],
),
));
}
add_action(‘admin_bar_menu’, ‘np_replace_howdy’, 999);
See my gist:
https://gist.github.com/Davidlab/8460a3cec27cb585d95c
pushker says
it is not woprking in my code . please suggest some easy code to remove howdy with hello
Gauranga says
I tried but it didn’t work.. kept saying error and when tried to repair it, my WordPress admin panel couldn’t load any more
I had to switch back to my back up functions.php file (fortunately i had it). Perhaps i made a mistake but it would be nice to have something that is really copy and paste for neophytes like myself with clear instructions instead of expecting everyone to know something else that may be common sense for those who know codes. Gauranga.
Sanskar says
Can we make it change each time to say hello in different languages?
WPBeginner Support says
Yes, you can. It may be a little complicated but do able. You will need to create an array in PHP with greetings in different languages. Then randomly pick a string from the array and use it with the rest of the code above.
Admin
NATHAN says
Wow…! Thank you genius..,
Lee says
Perfect! Thank you.
iTechRevo says
Hey in the admin panel howdy can be edited but on the front end howdy is still there and cannot be changed so what should i do to edit it?
graphicagenda says
@senlinonline: That is a great snippet! but it reverts back to the howdy for the frontend admin bar while logged in.
senlinonline says
Changing “Howdy” can actually be done quite a bit simpler than the above code. Add this to your functions.php (or functionality.php or any other file): /** CHANGE HOWDY – http://wpmu.org/daily-tip-how-to-change-the-wordpress-howdy-message-to-a-custom-welcome/ **/add_filter(‘gettext’, ‘change_howdy’, 10, 3);function change_howdy($translated, $text, $domain) { if (!is_admin() || ‘default’ != $domain) return $translated; if (false !== strpos($translated, ‘Howdy’)) return str_replace(‘Howdy’, ‘Welcome back’, $translated); return $translated;}/** END CHANGE HOWDY **/
Sean 'Wordpress Guy' Vosler says
I know, actually had a client ask me if it was made by a southern company because when I was signed it in said ‘howdy’, had a good laugh, but def something to do if your not positive on how a client might react
WPBeginner - WordPress for Beginners says
Sean ‘WordPress Guy’ Vosler for the sake of customization? Not everyone thinks that Howdy is cool. Greg said he will be sending us a more detailed tutorial on how he added more links and such.
timgordons says
Cool Tutorial. Just love it. Thanks! for this
Maximiliano Noriega says
Wow, great tip
Sean 'Wordpress Guy' Vosler says
why would you want to change this??? :p