diff --git a/cli/command/formatter/container_test.go b/cli/command/formatter/container_test.go
index b0637da8ff..18740d5499 100644
--- a/cli/command/formatter/container_test.go
+++ b/cli/command/formatter/container_test.go
@@ -241,6 +241,10 @@ size: 0B
 			Context{Format: NewContainerFormat(`table {{truncate .ID 5}}\t{{json .Image}} {{.RunningFor}}/{{title .Status}}/{{pad .Ports 2 2}}.{{upper .Names}} {{lower .Status}}`, false, true)},
 			string(golden.Get(t, "container-context-write-special-headers.golden")),
 		},
+		{
+			Context{Format: NewContainerFormat(`table {{split .Image ":"}}`, false, false)},
+			"IMAGE\n[ubuntu]\n[ubuntu]\n",
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, testcase := range cases {
diff --git a/templates/templates.go b/templates/templates.go
index 6cc2ec3608..0e8dd15368 100644
--- a/templates/templates.go
+++ b/templates/templates.go
@@ -30,11 +30,23 @@ var basicFunctions = template.FuncMap{
 // HeaderFunctions are used to created headers of a table.
 // This is a replacement of basicFunctions for header generation
 // because we want the header to remain intact.
-// Some functions like `split` are irrelevant so not added.
+// Some functions like `pad` are not overridden (to preserve alignment
+// with the columns).
 var HeaderFunctions = template.FuncMap{
 	"json": func(v string) string {
 		return v
 	},
+	"split": func(v string, _ string) string {
+		// we want the table header to show the name of the column, and not
+		// split the table header itself. Using a different signature
+		// here, and return a string instead of []string
+		return v
+	},
+	"join": func(v string, _ string) string {
+		// table headers are always a string, so use a different signature
+		// for the "join" function (string instead of []string)
+		return v
+	},
 	"title": func(v string) string {
 		return v
 	},