Renaming the 'Uncategorized' Category in WordPress

Blogging on WordPress is very user friendly. Content creators can organize their work in a couple of different fashions: tags and categories. If you’ve blogged on WordPress before, you’ll notice that the platform comes with a default “Uncategorized” category. This blog will detail how you go about renaming the category to fit something that’s customized specifically for your blog.  If you have never categorized your posts, they will fall into the WordPress default of “Uncategorized.” For many bloggers, this category title is clunky and unnecessary. Starting with your WordPress dashboard, head to the left-hand navigation.  On the right-hand side, you will see your categories listed. Since the “Uncategorized” category cannot be deleted and only renamed, hover over the “Uncategorized” category and select “Edit.” 

 

  1. On the “Edit Category” page, update the category name with the new name you wish to use.
  2. Update the category “slug” to reflect the name of the new category. 
  3. Update

Now, you have successfully updated the default post category name. Do not worry about the posts within the category, they do not get deleted once the category name is changed.  What if you want to keep the “Uncategorized” category, but would rather set a different category to your default?  This method of changing the default category requires your blog to have multiple categories in place. You will need to create a second category if you do not have one in place already.  Once you have created your new category, it will be shown in your category list. For example, I have created a category titled “New Default Category” (as shown above). Now, navigate to the “Settings” > “Writing” tab on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard.  From the drop-down menu on the “Writing Settings” page, select the category you wish to be represented as your post-default category. Once you’ve successfully updated your writing settings, each post that is published on your blog will now automatically default to the category you have created, unless you manually chose another category.