diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 6609d4eb..2a15f4f3 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: tourr
 Title: Tour Methods for Multivariate Data Visualisation
-Version: 1.2.4
+Version: 1.2.5
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Hadley", "Wickham", email = "h.wickham@gmail.com", role = c("aut", "ctb"), comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0003-4757-117X")),
     person("Dianne", "Cook", email = "dicook@monash.edu", role = c("aut", "cre"), comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-3813-7155")),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 5efb6194..3b6a9775 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# tourr 1.2.5
+
+* fixed issue #138
+
 # tourr 1.2.4
 
 * Fixed an error with draw_tour_axes
diff --git a/R/animate.r b/R/animate.r
index b78a6f5f..c3f3bc35 100644
--- a/R/animate.r
+++ b/R/animate.r
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ animate <- function(data, tour_path = grand_tour(), display = display_xy(),
     message("Converting input data to the required matrix format.")
     data <- as.matrix(data)
   }
+  if (is.null(colnames(data))){
+    message("Adding column names.")
+    colnames(data) <- paste0("x", 1:ncol(data))
+  }
 
   if (rescale) data <- rescale(data)
   if (sphere) data <- sphere_data(data)