Submitted by: Matt Dowle; Assigned to: Matt Dowle; [R-Forge link](https://r-forge.r-project.org/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2675&group_id=240&atid=5356) As raised here : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15913417/why-does-data-table-update-non-data-table-object-by-reference and here : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18662715/colnames-being-dropped-in-data-table-in-r Probably should go in ?copy. Or, maybe, if NAMED on the names attribute is incremented, it can be caught.