As a full-stack developer, your GitHub profile is often the first place potential employers, collaborators, and users will look to get a sense of your skills and experience. Your username is a big part of that first impression, so it‘s no surprise that many devs eventually face the question of whether to change their GitHub username to something more professional, memorable, or in line with their current branding.
In this in-depth guide, we‘ll walk through everything you need to know to change your GitHub username smoothly and successfully – from choosing a new name to updating your repos and references. We‘ll also dive into some of the technical details and considerations for each step along the way.
Table of Contents
- Why Change Your GitHub Username?
- Choosing a New Username
- The Username Change Process
- Updating Your Local Repositories
- Updating GitHub Pages and Other Integrations
- Redeploying Your Projects
- Updating References Around the Web
- GitHub Username Change Checklist
- Conclusion
Why Change Your GitHub Username?
Before we dive into the how-to, let‘s take a step back and look at some of the most common reasons why developers decide to change their GitHub usernames:
- Switching to a more professional handle for job seeking or career advancement
- Updating an old username that no longer reflects your identity or brand
- Resolving a naming conflict with another user on GitHub
- Adopting a new online persona or consolidating multiple identities
- Simplifying a hard-to-remember or hard-to-spell username
- Correcting a typo or error in your original username
Whatever your reason for wanting a new username, it‘s important to weigh the benefits against the potential risks and downsides. Changing your username means updating a lot of references and links, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. It also means potentially losing some of the SEO value and recognition you‘ve built up over time with your old username.
That said, if you‘re early in your career or haven‘t built up a huge following on GitHub yet, the benefits of switching to a more professional or memorable username probably outweigh the costs. Just be prepared to put in the work to update your references and redeploy your projects after the change.
Choosing a New Username
Assuming you‘ve decided to go ahead with a username change, the next step is choosing your new handle. This is one of the most important parts of the process, so it‘s worth taking some time to brainstorm and consider your options carefully.
Your GitHub username is essentially your brand on the platform – it‘s how people will find and remember you. Ideally, you want a username that is:
- Professional and appropriate for the type of work you do
- Easy to remember and spell correctly
- Short and simple (15 characters or less is ideal)
- Unique and not already in use by someone else on GitHub
- Consistent with your usernames on other platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
One common strategy is to use some combination of your real name, initials, or a keyword related to your work. For example:
- johnsmith or jsmith
- janedev or jdoe-dev
- reactguru or vuemaster
- designbyjane or dsmith-designs
You can also incorporate underscores, hyphens, or numbers if needed, but aim to keep them to a minimum for simplicity‘s sake. Avoid using any special characters besides dash and underscore.
Before settling on a new username, be sure to search for it on GitHub to make sure it‘s available. You should also check for the availability of the corresponding domain name (e.g. johnsmith.com) and social media handles, in case you want to use them for your personal brand down the line.
The Username Change Process
Okay, so you‘ve got your shiny new username picked out. Here‘s a high-level overview of the steps you‘ll need to complete to change your username on GitHub:
- Update your username in your GitHub account settings
- Change the name of your GitHub Pages repository (if applicable)
- Update references to your GitHub URL in any external sites or integrations
- Update references to your old username in your local repository files
- Push your updated local repos back up to GitHub
- Redeploy any affected websites or projects to use the new URLs
- Notify your collaborators and the broader community of your username change
We‘ll go through each of these steps in more detail in the following sections.
Updating Your Local Repositories
One of the most important and potentially time-consuming parts of changing your GitHub username is updating all of the references to your old username in your local repository files.
Depending on how many repos you have and how long you‘ve been using GitHub, your old username could be scattered across dozens or even hundreds of files – from Git configs and remote URLs to README files, documentation, and inline comments.
To find all of the places where your old username appears, you can use a tool like grep to recursively search through your local files:
grep -rnw /path/to/repos -e ‘old-username‘This will search all files in the /path/to/repos directory and its subdirectories (-r) for the exact string "old-username" (-w) and output the filename and line number (-n) for each match.
You can then use a tool like sed to perform a find-and-replace on your old username and update it to your new one:
sed -i ‘s/old-username/new-username/g‘ /path/to/fileThis will replace all instances of "old-username" with "new-username" in the specified file, and the -i flag will perform the replacements inline.
Alternatively, you can use your code editor‘s built-in find-and-replace functionality to update multiple files at once. Just be careful not to accidentally replace any substrings that aren‘t actually your username (e.g. "old-username" appearing in a URL or email address).
Once you‘ve updated all of the references to your old username in your local repos, you‘ll need to push the changes back up to GitHub. Depending on your Git setup, you may need to update your remote URLs to point to your new username as well:
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/new-username/repo.gitUpdating GitHub Pages and Other Integrations
If you‘re using GitHub Pages to host a website or blog, you‘ll need to update your Pages repository to use your new username. GitHub Pages repos are named in the format username.github.io, so you‘ll need to rename yours from old-username.github.io to new-username.github.io.
To do this, go to your GitHub Pages repo, click the "Settings" tab, and then click the "Rename" button under the "Repository name" heading. Type in your new repo name and click "Rename" to confirm.
After renaming your GitHub Pages repo, you‘ll need to update any references to the old GitHub Pages URL in your project files, documentation, and external sites. This includes any links to your GitHub Pages site, as well as any integrations or services that rely on the GitHub Pages URL (e.g. Travis CI, Netlify, etc.).
In addition to GitHub Pages, you‘ll want to review and update any other GitHub integrations you have set up for your repositories. This could include:
- Continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) services like Travis CI, CircleCI, or GitHub Actions
- Code quality and test coverage tools like Codecov or Codacy
- Project management and issue tracking tools like ZenHub or Waffle
- Dependency management and security tools like Dependabot or Snyk
Many of these integrations rely on OAuth tokens or other authentication methods tied to your GitHub username, so you may need to regenerate those tokens and update your integration settings after the username change.
Redeploying Your Projects
After you‘ve updated all the references to your old username in your repositories and integrations, it‘s time to redeploy your projects to make sure everything is working with the new URLs.
For GitHub Pages sites, you can trigger a new build and deployment by pushing a new commit to the main branch of your username.github.io repo. If you‘re using a custom domain, you may need to re-add it in your repository settings after the username change.
If you‘re deploying your projects to other hosting providers like Netlify, Vercel, or Heroku, you‘ll need to update your deployment settings to point to your new repository URLs. This may involve regenerating deploy keys, updating environment variables, or reconfiguring build and deploy scripts.
Be sure to thoroughly test your deployed projects after the username change to catch any broken links or misconfigured settings. You may also want to do a quick Google search for your old GitHub Pages URL to find any external sites that are still linking to it, and reach out to the site owners to ask them to update their links.
Updating References Around the Web
In addition to updating your own repos and projects, you‘ll also need to update any references to your GitHub profile and repositories around the web. This includes:
- Your personal website or blog
- Social media profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Conference talks or slide decks
- Forum posts or comments where you‘ve linked to your GitHub repos
- Other developers‘ projects that reference your code or contributions
- Any other sites or profiles where you‘ve listed your GitHub URL
Depending on how active you are on GitHub and how widely you‘ve shared your profile and repos, this can be a significant undertaking. One helpful strategy is to make a list of all the places you know you‘ve shared your GitHub URL, and then systematically go through and update them one by one.
It‘s also a good idea to post a notice about your username change on your GitHub profile README, your personal website or blog, and your social media profiles. This will help alert your followers and collaborators to the change and reduce confusion.
Finally, don‘t forget to update your Git configuration on your local machine to use your new email address and username:
git config --global user.name "Your New Username"git config --global user.email "[emailprotected]"This will ensure that your future commits are attributed to your new username and email address.
GitHub Username Change Checklist
To summarize, here‘s a handy checklist of all the steps involved in changing your GitHub username:
- Choose a new username that is professional, memorable, and available
- Update your username in your GitHub account settings
- Rename your GitHub Pages repository to
new-username.github.io - Update references to your old username in your local repository files
- Push your updated local repos to GitHub
- Update any integrations or services that rely on your GitHub username (CI/CD, code quality tools, etc.)
- Redeploy your websites and projects with the new URLs
- Update references to your GitHub profile and repos on your personal website, social media profiles, and external sites
- Notify your collaborators and followers of your username change
- Update your Git configuration to use your new username and email address
Conclusion
Changing your GitHub username can be a daunting process, but with careful planning and execution, it doesn‘t have to be a nightmare. By following the steps outlined in this guide and thoroughly updating your references and integrations, you can ensure a smooth transition to your new identity on GitHub.
Remember, your GitHub username is a key part of your professional brand as a developer. Choosing a clear, memorable, and professional username can help you make a great first impression on potential collaborators, employers, and users of your projects.
If you‘re considering a username change, don‘t let the fear of broken links and lost followers hold you back. With a bit of elbow grease and attention to detail, you can successfully update your GitHub identity and take your development career to the next level.
