diff --git a/c/CHANGELOG.rst b/c/CHANGELOG.rst
index 25808efd93..9f8ed69789 100644
--- a/c/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/c/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@
 - ``tsk_variant_t`` now includes its ``tsk_site_t`` rather than pointing to it. 
   (:user:`benjeffery`, :issue:`2161`, :pr:`2162`)
 
+- Rename TSK_TAKE_TABLES to TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP.
+  (:user:`benjeffery`, :issue:`2221`, :pr:`2222`)
 
 **Features**
 
diff --git a/c/tskit/tables.h b/c/tskit/tables.h
index bfbb0c670d..276486efca 100644
--- a/c/tskit/tables.h
+++ b/c/tskit/tables.h
@@ -689,6 +689,10 @@ typedef struct {
 /** @brief Do not run integrity checks before performing an operation. */
 #define TSK_NO_CHECK_INTEGRITY (1u << 29)
 
+/** @brief Instead of taking a copy of input data, take ownership of it
+ *  and its lifecycle */
+#define TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP (1 << 28)
+
 /**@} */
 
 /* Flags for simplify() */
@@ -719,7 +723,6 @@ typedef struct {
 
 /* Flags for load tables */
 #define TSK_BUILD_INDEXES (1 << 0)
-#define TSK_TAKE_TABLES (1 << 1)
 
 /* Flags for dump tables */
 /* We may not want to document this flag, but it's useful for testing
diff --git a/c/tskit/trees.c b/c/tskit/trees.c
index 1830e4c666..ba4db3bad8 100644
--- a/c/tskit/trees.c
+++ b/c/tskit/trees.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
  * MIT License
  *
- * Copyright (c) 2019-2021 Tskit Developers
+ * Copyright (c) 2019-2022 Tskit Developers
  * Copyright (c) 2015-2018 University of Oxford
  *
  * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ tsk_treeseq_init(
     tsk_id_t num_trees;
 
     tsk_memset(self, 0, sizeof(*self));
-    if (options & TSK_TAKE_TABLES) {
+    if (options & TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP) {
         self->tables = tables;
     } else {
         self->tables = tsk_malloc(sizeof(*self->tables));
@@ -493,9 +493,9 @@ tsk_treeseq_load(tsk_treeseq_t *self, const char *filename, tsk_flags_t options)
         tsk_safe_free(tables);
         goto out;
     }
-    /* TSK_TAKE_TABLES takes immediate ownership of the tables, regardless
+    /* TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP takes immediate ownership of the tables, regardless
      * of error conditions. */
-    ret = tsk_treeseq_init(self, tables, TSK_TAKE_TABLES);
+    ret = tsk_treeseq_init(self, tables, TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP);
     if (ret != 0) {
         goto out;
     }
@@ -523,9 +523,9 @@ tsk_treeseq_loadf(tsk_treeseq_t *self, FILE *file, tsk_flags_t options)
         tsk_safe_free(tables);
         goto out;
     }
-    /* TSK_TAKE_TABLES takes immediate ownership of the tables, regardless
+    /* TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP takes immediate ownership of the tables, regardless
      * of error conditions. */
-    ret = tsk_treeseq_init(self, tables, TSK_TAKE_TABLES);
+    ret = tsk_treeseq_init(self, tables, TSK_TAKE_OWNERSHIP);
     if (ret != 0) {
         goto out;
     }