diff --git a/R/transpose.R b/R/transpose.R
index a7b2afc84..684b135d4 100644
--- a/R/transpose.R
+++ b/R/transpose.R
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-transpose = function(l, fill=NA, ignore.empty=FALSE, keep.names=NULL, make.names=NULL, return.list=FALSE) {
+transpose = function(l, fill=NA, ignore.empty=FALSE, keep.names=NULL, make.names=NULL, list.cols=FALSE) {
   if (!is.null(make.names)) {
     stopifnot(length(make.names)==1L)
     if (is.character(make.names)) {
@@ -14,14 +14,12 @@ transpose = function(l, fill=NA, ignore.empty=FALSE, keep.names=NULL, make.names
     colnames = as.character(l[[make.names]])
     l = if (is.data.table(l)) l[,-make.names,with=FALSE] else l[-make.names]
   }
-  ans = .Call(Ctranspose, l, fill, ignore.empty, keep.names, return.list)
+  ans = .Call(Ctranspose, l, fill, ignore.empty, keep.names, list.cols)
   if (!is.null(make.names)) setattr(ans, "names", c(keep.names, colnames))
   else if (is.data.frame(l))  # including data.table but not plain list
     setattr(ans, "names", c(keep.names, paste0("V", seq_len(length(ans)-length(keep.names)))))
-  if (!return.list) {
-    if (is.data.table(l)) setDT(ans)
-    else if (is.data.frame(l)) setDF(ans)
-  }
+  if (is.data.table(l)) setDT(ans)
+  else if (is.data.frame(l)) setDF(ans)
   ans[]
 }
 
diff --git a/src/transpose.c b/src/transpose.c
index 6d9c9e19c..36ef13e65 100644
--- a/src/transpose.c
+++ b/src/transpose.c
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 #include <Rdefines.h>
 #include <time.h>
 
-SEXP transpose(SEXP l, SEXP fill, SEXP ignoreArg, SEXP keepNamesArg, SEXP returnListArg) {
+SEXP transpose(SEXP l, SEXP fill, SEXP ignoreArg, SEXP keepNamesArg, SEXP listColsArg) {
 
   int nprotect=0;
   if (!isNewList(l))
@@ -18,9 +18,9 @@ SEXP transpose(SEXP l, SEXP fill, SEXP ignoreArg, SEXP keepNamesArg, SEXP return
   if (length(fill) != 1)
     error(_("fill must be a length 1 vector, such as the default NA"));
   R_len_t ln = LENGTH(l);
-  if (!isLogical(returnListArg) || LOGICAL(returnListArg)[0]==NA_LOGICAL)
-    error(_("ignore.empty should be logical TRUE/FALSE."));
-  bool returnList = LOGICAL(returnListArg)[0];
+  if (!isLogical(listColsArg) || LOGICAL(listColsArg)[0]==NA_LOGICAL)
+    error(_("list.cols should be logical TRUE/FALSE."));
+  bool listCol = LOGICAL(listColsArg)[0];
 
   // preprocessing
   int maxlen=0, zerolen=0;
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ SEXP transpose(SEXP l, SEXP fill, SEXP ignoreArg, SEXP keepNamesArg, SEXP return
     if (isFactor(li)) type=STRSXP;
     if (type>maxtype) maxtype=type;
   }
-  if (returnList) maxtype=VECSXP; // need to keep preprocessing for zerolen
+  if (listCol) maxtype=VECSXP; // need to keep preprocessing for zerolen
   fill = PROTECT(coerceVector(fill, maxtype)); nprotect++;
 
   SEXP ans = PROTECT(allocVector(VECSXP, maxlen+rn)); nprotect++;