There are many reasons why you would want to rename a Genesis child theme. One reason that comes to mind is for branding purposes. Imagine you work from a small web company and you want to give your client a branded theme for WordPress. If you’re lucky enough to be running the Genesis Framework, I’m about to show you how easy it is to rename a child theme on the Genesis framework.
If you don’t have or use the Genesis Framework, I suggest you go get it now! It will make your WordPress development so much easier and it’s SEO optimized out of the box from the fine people at StudioPress.
Note: Please do not have the theme ‘activated’ when attempting to rename the theme. Either deactivate the theme and perform the steps below or FTP the files down to your local computer to make the changes. Once the changes are made upload the files to your WordPress site.
3 Easy Steps to Rename a Genesis Child Theme
In the example below I’m using this site to demonstrate the settings and naming convention.
Step 1: Rename the child theme folder. (B3)
Step 2: Edit style.css.
/* Theme Name: B3 Theme URI: http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com/ Description: B3 is a two or three column child theme created for the Genesis Framework. Author: Rick R. Duncan Author URI: http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com Version: 1.0 Template: genesis Template Version: 1.8 License: GNU General Public License v2.0 License URI: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php */
Step 3: Open function.php and find then edit the line of code that begins with Child theme:
/** Child theme (do not remove) */ define( 'CHILD_THEME_NAME', 'B3' ); define( 'CHILD_THEME_URL', 'http://www.buildbrandbelieve.com/' );
You’re done!
BONUS
If you also want to change the image preview for your new custom skin that’s very easy too:
- Simply take a screenshot of your homepage
- Re-size the image to 300×225
- Save and name it screenshot.png
- Place it in your theme folder and overwrite the existing file. Done!
The above code sample is what I used to rename the StudioPress eleven40 Child Theme. It’s what this site is currently running.
hi,
Can i rename the Genesis framework, or i must rename the Sample Child Theme?
Thanks
It’s best not to customize anything having to do with the Genesis Framework itself. Customizations should only be performed on the child themes so that when the fine folks at StudioPress make an upgrade to the framework you don’t have to worry about your custom code breaking. So to answer your question; rename the sample child theme.
Thanks for your answer.
Can I do this while the site is live with the child theme I am wanting to rename? Or do I have to deactivate it? And will deactivating it cause me lose all of my settings?
Thanks!
I have never tried to rename it while a site is live. I think it’s best to FTP to the files and download them before making the changes. Generally speaking when you already have a Genesis theme loaded and switch to another Genesis theme all of your settings will stay intact without any issues. Every once in a while I’ve encountered a slight annoyance where I have to re-create the custom menu when switching or upgrading a theme. It’s really no big deal as it only takes a minute to reassign the menu.
I’ve tried this but the theme stops working as soon as I change the directory name. For instance if i wanted to change the sample child theme to Test Theme how would I need to change the directory, css and functions?
Are you attempting to rename the theme while it’s active? I’ve updated the post to include information about having to deactivate the theme before making the changes.
Right on time! Simply done. Thanks so much.