diff --git a/doc/src/dump_modify.rst b/doc/src/dump_modify.rst
index 4d1fb77b10..5dfde62282 100644
--- a/doc/src/dump_modify.rst
+++ b/doc/src/dump_modify.rst
@@ -381,9 +381,9 @@ performed with dump style *xtc*\ .
 ----------
 
 The *colname* keyword can be used to change the default header keyword
-for dump styles: *atom*, *custom*, and *cfg* and their compressed and
-MPIIO variants.  The setting for *ID string* replaces the default text
-with the provided string.  *ID* can be a positive integer when it
+for dump styles: *atom*, *custom*, and *cfg* and their compressed, ADIOS,
+and MPIIO variants.  The setting for *ID string* replaces the default
+text with the provided string.  *ID* can be a positive integer when it
 represents the column number counting from the left, a negative integer
 when it represents the column number from the right (i.e. -1 is the last
 column/keyword), or a thermo keyword (or compute, fix, property, or
diff --git a/src/ADIOS/dump_atom_adios.cpp b/src/ADIOS/dump_atom_adios.cpp
index 3e637b02d7..7588b6775b 100644
--- a/src/ADIOS/dump_atom_adios.cpp
+++ b/src/ADIOS/dump_atom_adios.cpp
@@ -238,6 +238,9 @@ void DumpAtomADIOS::init_style()
     columnNames = {"id", "type", "xs", "ys", "zs", "ix", "iy", "iz"};
   }
 
+  for (int icol = 0; icol < (int)columnNames.size(); ++icol)
+    if (keyword_user[icol].size()) columnNames[icol] = keyword_user[icol];
+
   // setup function ptrs
 
   if (scale_flag == 1 && image_flag == 0 && domain->triclinic == 0)
diff --git a/src/ADIOS/dump_custom_adios.cpp b/src/ADIOS/dump_custom_adios.cpp
index 263f15349c..82cc4a9c0c 100644
--- a/src/ADIOS/dump_custom_adios.cpp
+++ b/src/ADIOS/dump_custom_adios.cpp
@@ -214,6 +214,19 @@ void DumpCustomADIOS::write()
 
 void DumpCustomADIOS::init_style()
 {
+  // assemble column string from defaults and user values
+
+  delete[] columns;
+  std::string combined;
+  int icol = 0;
+  for (auto item : utils::split_words(columns_default)) {
+    if (combined.size()) combined += " ";
+    if (keyword_user[icol].size()) combined += keyword_user[icol];
+    else combined += item;
+    ++icol;
+  }
+  columns = utils::strdup(combined);
+
   // setup boundary string
 
   domain->boundary_string(boundstr);