How to Change the Name of a WordPress Category

By Lisa Sabin-Wilson from WordPress Web Design For Dummies

Upon installation, WordPress gives you one default category named Uncategorized. That category name is pretty generic, so you definitely want to change it to one that’s more specific to you.

The default category also serves as kind of a fail-safe. If you publish a post to your blog and don’t assign that post to a category, the post automatically gets assigned to the default category, no matter what you name the category.

Log in to your WordPress.

The WordPress Dashboard displays..

Choose Posts→Categories.

The Categories page opens, containing all the tools you need to set up and edit category titles for your blog.

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Click the title of the category you want to edit.

For example, if you want to change the Uncategorized category, click the Uncategorized link. The Edit Category page appears.

Type the new name for the category in the Name text box and then type the new slug in the Slug text box.

Slug refers to the word(s) used in the Web address for the specific category. For example, the Books category has a Web address of http://yourdomain.com/category/books.

If you change the slug to Books I Like, the Web address is http://yourdomain.com/category/books-i-like.

WordPress automatically inserts a dash between the slug words in the Web address.

Choose a parent category from the Parent drop-down list.

If you want this category to be a main category, not a subcategory, choose None.

(Optional) Type a description of the category in the Description text box.

Use this description to remind yourself what your category is about. Some WordPress themes display the category description right on your site, which can be helpful for your visitors. You’ll know whether your theme is coded in this way if your site displays the category description on the category page(s).