def _replace_null_column_names(column_list):
    """Replace null names in columns from file cleaning with an appropriately
    blank column name.

    Parameters
    ----------
    column_list: list[dict]
      the list of columns from file cleaning.

    Returns
    --------
    column_list: list[dict]
    """

    new_cols = []
    for i, col in enumerate(column_list):
        # Avoid mutating input arguments
        new_col = dict(col)
        if new_col.get('name') is None:
            new_col['name'] = 'column_{}'.format(i)
        new_cols.append(new_col)
    return new_cols