diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c b/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
index 96aa6cbf24d6ba04e90d262a857803d3fe781f7b..8c7ab29169b9466d2acb2f9f0ce227873840e5b9 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
@@ -662,7 +662,9 @@ static void generic_metric(const char *metric_expr,
 				out->force_header ?  name : "",
 				ratio);
 		else
-			print_metric(ctxp, NULL, NULL, "", 0);
+			print_metric(ctxp, NULL, NULL,
+				     out->force_header ?
+				     (metric_name ? metric_name : name) : "", 0);
 	} else
 		print_metric(ctxp, NULL, NULL, "", 0);
 }