How do I change the title of the "back" button on a Navigation Bar

This should be placed in the method that calls the ViewController titled "NewTitle".Right before the push or popViewController statement.

UIBarButtonItem *newBackButton =         [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"NewTitle"                                          style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered                                         target:nil                                         action:nil];[[self navigationItem] setBackBarButtonItem:newBackButton];[newBackButton release];

In ChildVC this worked for me...

self.navigationController.navigationBar.topItem.title = @"Back";

Works in Swift too!

self.navigationController!.navigationBar.topItem!.title = "Back"

Here is the documentation for backBarButtonItem:

"When this navigation item is immediately below the top item in the stack, the navigation controller derives the back button for the navigation bar from this navigation item. [...] If you want to specify a custom image or title for the back button, you can assign a custom bar button item (with your custom title or image) to this property instead."

View Controller A (the "parent" view controller):

self.title = @"Really Long Title";UIBarButtonItem *backButton = [[UIBarButtonItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"Short" style:UIBarButtonItemStyleBordered target:nil action:nil];self.navigationItem.backBarButtonItem = backButton;

When any other view controller B is on top of the navigation stack, and A is right below it, B's back button will have the title "Short".