diff --git a/cobra.go b/cobra.go
index 78b92b0a..ea2784da 100644
--- a/cobra.go
+++ b/cobra.go
@@ -34,6 +34,15 @@ var EnablePrefixMatching bool = false
 // enables an information splash screen on Windows if the CLI is started from explorer.exe.
 var EnableWindowsMouseTrap bool = true
 
+// HelpFlagShorthand is the character used to for the help flag's shorthand notation. The
+// default value is "h".
+var HelpFlagShorthand string = "h"
+
+// HelpFlagUsageFormatString is the format string used with fmt.Sprintf to produce the
+// usage value for the help flag. The name of a given command is substituted in the
+// formatted result.
+var HelpFlagUsageFormatString string = "help for %s"
+
 var MousetrapHelpText string = `This is a command line tool
 
 You need to open cmd.exe and run it from there.
diff --git a/command.go b/command.go
index cbbc3264..cbadbb96 100644
--- a/command.go
+++ b/command.go
@@ -859,7 +859,9 @@ func (c *Command) Flags() *flag.FlagSet {
 			c.flagErrorBuf = new(bytes.Buffer)
 		}
 		c.flags.SetOutput(c.flagErrorBuf)
-		c.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&c.helpFlagVal, "help", "h", false, "help for "+c.Name())
+		c.PersistentFlags().BoolVarP(&c.helpFlagVal, "help",
+			HelpFlagShorthand, false,
+			fmt.Sprintf(HelpFlagUsageFormatString, c.Name()))
 	}
 	return c.flags
 }