Graphed LogoGraphed
Login

How to Rename Measure Names in Tableau

Cody Schneider•

Trying to rename "Measure Names" in a Tableau-generated legend or axis can feel like a head-scratcher. You right-click, search for an option, but find nothing that lets you change the name. This article will show you exactly why that happens and give you several practical methods to customize those measure names for clearer, more professional-looking dashboards.

What Are "Measure Names" and "Measure Values"?

Before jumping into the solutions, it helps to understand what you're working with. In Tableau, "Measure Names" and "Measure Values" are special, auto-generated fields that act as containers. They don't exist in your original data source.

  • Measure Names: A discrete field containing the names of all the measures you drag into a view.

  • Measure Values: A continuous field that holds the values for each of those corresponding measures.

Tableau creates these fields automatically when you need to display multiple measures on a single axis or in a single marks card. For instance, if you want to show Sales, Profit, and Quantity on the same bar chart, Tableau uses Measure Names on the Columns shelf and Measure Values on the Rows shelf. Because these are "generated" fields and not actual columns in your data, they behave differently than your regular fields, which is why a simple "Rename" option isn't available.

Why Should You Rename Measure Names?

Customizing these names isn't just about aesthetics, it’s about improving the clarity and user experience of your dashboards. Here are a few key reasons to do it:

  • Clarity and Readability: Field names pulled from a database are often not user-friendly. A name like "SUM(fact_Sales_USD)" is accurate for an analyst, but "Total Revenue" is much clearer for a business stakeholder looking at your dashboard.

  • Business Terminology Alignment: Every company has its own terminology. Renaming your measures ensures your dashboards speak the same language as your audience, reducing confusion and misinterpretation.

  • Professionalism: Clean, intuitive labels give your dashboards a polished and professional finish. It shows attention to detail and a focus on the end-user's experience.

  • Contextual Grouping: Sometimes you want to group measures under a common theme. For example, you might have "Sales Last Year" and "Sales This Year," which are far more descriptive than just having two "Sales" fields distinguished by a date filter.

Now, let's get into the practical, step-by-step methods to achieve this customization.

Method 1: Using Aliases (The Quick Fix)

The fastest way to rename a measure name in a specific view is by using an alias. An alias is a custom display name for a member of a discrete dimension. Since Measure Names acts as a discrete dimension in the view, this method works perfectly for quick changes.

This is best for one-off charts where you need a fast solution and don't plan on reusing the same customization in multiple worksheets.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Create a view that uses Measure Names and Measure Values. For example, drag Order Date to Columns and Measure Values to Rows. Then, drag Sales and Profit to the Measure Values card that automatically appears.

  2. Tableau will likely also add the Measure Names pill to the Color shelf in the Marks card, which creates a legend.

  3. Find the legend on your worksheet (usually on the right side). Right-click on one of the measure names you want to change, like 'Sales'.

  4. From the context menu, select "Edit Alias...".

  5. A dialog box will pop up, showing the measure name ("Member") and its alias ("Value (Alias)"). Click in the alias text box and type your new, desired name. For instance, you could change "Sales" to "Total Revenue."

  6. Click OK.

The name in your legend will immediately update. You can repeat this for every measure name in your view.

Pros:

  • Extremely fast and easy.

  • Perfect for quick edits and single worksheets.

Cons:

  • Changes are specific to that worksheet only. If you create a new sheet with the same measures, you'll have to set the aliases again.

  • Not scalable for workbooks with many charts using the same measures.

Method 2: Creating Individual Measures (The Scalable Solution)

If you plan to use your custom-named measures across multiple worksheets, this is the most robust and recommended method. Instead of relying on the auto-generated "Measure Values" container, you’ll effectively create your own measures with the exact names you want.

The idea is to pivot your data structure slightly within Tableau so that you have a new dimension for the names and a new measure for the values.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. From the Data Source tab, select the columns (measures) you want to use. Hold the CTRL key (or Command on a Mac) to select multiple columns, like 'Sales,' 'Profit,' and 'Quantity'.

  2. Right-click on any of the highlighted column headers.

  3. From the context menu, select "Pivot."

  4. Tableau will transform your data, creating two new fields:

    • "Pivot Field Names": A dimension containing the original column headers ('Sales', 'Profit', etc.).

    • "Pivot Field Values": A measure containing the corresponding values for those headers.

  5. Go back to your worksheet. You can now rename "Pivot Field Names" to something more intuitive, like "Metric Name." Do the same for "Pivot Field Values," renaming it to "Metric Value." To do this, just right-click the field in the data pane and select "Rename."

  6. Now, right-click on your new "Metric Name" dimension in the data pane and select "Aliases...".

  7. Here, you can assign custom aliases to each original measure name. For example, change 'Sales' to 'Total Revenue' and 'Profit' to 'Net Profit'. These aliases will apply workbook-wide.

  8. You can now build your chart using your new pivoted fields instead of the original measures. For example, drag your "Metric Value" to Rows and your "Metric Name" to Columns or Color.

Pros:

  • The changes are global across your entire Tableau workbook.

  • It's a very clean method that keeps your dashboard consistent.

  • Maintains a strong underlying data structure.

Cons:

  • Pivoting can increase the size of certain data sources.

  • Only one pivot is allowed per data source. If you've already pivoted data for another reason, this method isn't possible.

Method 3: The Dashboard Floating Text Box Trick (The Presentation Polish)

Sometimes, your goal is pure presentation polish on a dashboard, and the underlying field names don't matter as much. This is a clever workaround for situations where Tableau’s default legend formatting is too restrictive.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  1. Build your worksheet as you normally would. For this example, let's assume you've used Measure Names on the Color shelf, which generates a color legend.

  2. Drag this worksheet onto a new dashboard.

  3. By default, Tableau will display the color legend next to your sheet. Click the legend, find the small drop-down arrow in its top right corner, and select "Remove from Dashboard."

  4. Now, from the Objects pane on the left, drag a Horizontal Container to your dashboard where you would like your custom legend to be.

  5. Inside this container, do the following for each measure:

    • Drag a Text object into the container. Type in the custom measure name you want (e.g., "Total Revenue"). Format the text to your liking.

    • Now, we need a color swatch. A simple way to do this is to create a new, separate worksheet. Create a calculated field called "Color Box" with the formula '' (two single quotes). Drag that to the text mark and set the Mark Type to "Square". Drag your Measure Names to "Color". This will make a swatch of each color. Hide all headers and titles to isolate the square.

    • Back on your dashboard, drag these tiny "color box" sheets into your horizontal container next to each text object, aligning "Total Revenue" with the corresponding color square for sales.

This sounds complicated, but it gives you complete control over your dashboard's final appearance, allowing you to create fully customized legends and labels from scratch.

Pros:

  • Total creative control over font, size, layout, and placement.

  • Allows for more complex legends with additional text or annotations.

Cons:

  • A very manual process.

  • The "legend" is not truly dynamic, if your data colors change, you have to manually update your custom "color box" worksheets.

  • Can be tedious to align all the floating elements perfectly.

Final Thoughts

Since "Measure Names" is a generated field, you can't simply rename it like you would with other fields in your data pane. However, with techniques ranging from simple one-time aliases to strategic workbook-level changes like pivoting data, you have a full toolset to make your dashboards clear, professional, and perfectly aligned with your business needs.

We know manually handling these workarounds and tweaking dashboards can feel like a chore, taking you away from finding real insights. At Graphed, we’ve automated this entire process. You connect your data sources, and then you can just ask in plain English, "Show me a chart of Total Revenue versus Net Profit for last quarter," and the dashboard is created for you in seconds with clean, logical names from the start. It saves you the time you'd otherwise spend on renaming fields and aligning elements, letting you focus on the story your data is telling.