In Google Sheets, the column headers are named A, B, C, and so on by default. Some users want to change the names of the column headers to something more meaningful. Unfortunately, Google Sheets does not allow the header names to be changed.

Instead, if you want to have meaningful column header names, you can do the following.

The same applies to row names in Google Sheets. You cannot change the row names, or numbering, but you can add your desired row names in column A for the corresponding rows.

  • Click in the first row of the worksheet and insert a new row above that first row.

  • How to add or remove a cell, column, or row in Google Sheets.

  • In the inserted row, enter the preferred name for each column.

  • To make the row of column names more noticeable, you could increase the text size, make the text bold, or add background color to the cells in that row.

Unlike Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets does not include an option to hide the default column and row headers.

  • How to freeze or unfreeze rows or columns in a spreadsheet.
  • See our column, header, and Google Sheets pages for further information and related links.
  • Google Sheets help and support.