Example 1: r rename columns # Rename column by name : change "beta" to "two" names ( d ) [ names ( d ) == "beta" ] < - "two" d # > alpha two gamma # > 1 1 4 7 # > 2 2 5 8 # > 3 3 6 9 # You can also rename by position , but this is a bit dangerous if your data # can change in the future . If there is a change in the number or positions of # columns , then this can result in wrong data . # Rename by index in names vector : change third item , "gamma" , to "three" names ( d ) [ 3 ] < - "three" d # > alpha two three # > 1 1 4 7 # > 2 2 5 8 # > 3 3 6 9 Example 2: how to change column names in r colnames ( dataset ) < - c ( 'name1' , 'name2' , . . ) Example 3: rename column in r my_data % > % rename ( sepal_length = Sepal . Length