Translation of admin log messages fails due to case inconsistency in field names

[Meiyer]

The Django Admin builds the log messages using construct_change_message, which looks at the fields of the change form, specifically their labels (​https://github.com/django/django/blob/9814676ea75bfe5c5d5244c50ccfe1f652a2f058/django/contrib/admin/utils.py#L618). The helper function turns off the translation when building the change JSON, to apply the translation when a LogMessage is displayed. However, there is a flaw in the logic:

• the verbose_name parameter of the model field would typically be lower-cased (from the docs: “The convention is not to capitalize the first letter of the verbose_name. Django will automatically capitalize the first letter where it needs to.” ).
• the labels generated by the forms have the first letter capitalized (from the docs: “the default label for a Field is generated from the field name by converting all underscores to spaces and upper-casing the first letter”) where for Model Forms, “Django will fall back on that model field’s verbose_name and then the field’s attribute name”.

This results in translation mismatch at render time. For example, the log message would include "fields": ["Occupation"] while the translation catalog has only the key “occupation”, coming from that field’s verbose_name. As a result, the field names are not properly translated.

I tracked the issue back to changes introduced in 3.0 and it persists in all versions up to 6.0.

[Jacob Walls]

Thanks for the clear report and diagnosis.

[Jacob Walls]

Linters are failing.

[jaffar Khan]

Wants to work on this ticket if the current assignee is no longer interested

[master]

I confirm the issue.
The capitalisation is probably done in db\models\fields\__init__.py with "label": capfirst(self.verbose_name),.

For example, this column content: [{'changed': {'fields': ['Status']}}] is rendered in French str as: Modification de « t2>t2:90 » — Modification de Status.
According to the app .po file, the end of the text should be état., or maybe État.

[master]

Here is a proposed patch of contrib/admin/utils.py:

--- C:/D/tmp/utils_old.py	Tue Feb 10 11:20:50 2026
+++ C:/D/tmp/utils_new.py	Tue Feb 10 11:21:01 2026
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 def _get_changed_field_labels_from_form(form, changed_data):
     changed_field_labels = []
+    opts = form.instance._meta
     for field_name in changed_data:
         try:
-            verbose_field_name = form.fields[field_name].label or field_name
+            # can't use form.fields[field_name].label because it is wrapped in capfirst()
+            verbose_field_name = opts.get_field(field_name).verbose_name or field_name
         except KeyError:
             verbose_field_name = field_name
         changed_field_labels.append(str(verbose_field_name))

Now, my example is:
column content: [{"changed": {"fields": ["status"]}}]
str of logentry: Modification de « t2>t2:90 » — Modification de état.

[Yang]

Replying to Thrishagowdabl:

Hi @Thrishagowdabl, I submitted a PR for this ticket (​https://github.com/django/django/pull/20748). Are you still working on this? If so, I'm happy to close my PR or help with your patch instead. Let me know!

[NAYAN SHARMA]

Hi, I noticed that the ticket is now unassigned. Is anyone currently working on this issue or planning to submit an updated patch? I'd be interested in working on it if it's available, and I want to avoid duplicating anyone's effort. Thanks!

[Sahil Advani]

Hi, I'm interested in working on this ticket as my next Django contribution. I noticed that PR #22151 was closed due to the PR submission requirements rather than a code review. Nayan, are you planning to resubmit your fix, or would it be okay for me to take this forward? I want to avoid duplicating active work. Thanks!