diff --git a/docs/renderers.md b/docs/renderers.md
index 7916053..6f4aec3 100644
--- a/docs/renderers.md
+++ b/docs/renderers.md
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ If you are considering using `XML` for your API, you may want to consider implem
 
 **.charset**: `utf-8`
 
-**item_tag_name**: `list-item`
+**.item_tag_name**: `list-item`
 
 **.root_tag_name**: `root`
+
+**.override_item_tag_name**: `False`
diff --git a/rest_framework_xml/renderers.py b/rest_framework_xml/renderers.py
index 66199a9..2152746 100644
--- a/rest_framework_xml/renderers.py
+++ b/rest_framework_xml/renderers.py
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@
 
 from django.utils import six
 from django.utils.xmlutils import SimplerXMLGenerator
-from django.utils.six.moves import StringIO
+from django.utils.six import StringIO
 from django.utils.encoding import force_text
 from rest_framework.renderers import BaseRenderer
+from xml.etree import ElementTree as ET
 
 
 class XMLRenderer(BaseRenderer):
@@ -20,6 +21,7 @@ class XMLRenderer(BaseRenderer):
     charset = 'utf-8'
     item_tag_name = 'list-item'
     root_tag_name = 'root'
+    override_item_tag_name = False
 
     def render(self, data, accepted_media_type=None, renderer_context=None):
         """
@@ -38,8 +40,24 @@ def render(self, data, accepted_media_type=None, renderer_context=None):
 
         xml.endElement(self.root_tag_name)
         xml.endDocument()
+
+        if self.override_item_tag_name:
+            self._do_override_item_tag_name(stream)
+
         return stream.getvalue()
 
+    def _do_override_item_tag_name(self, stream):
+        root = ET.fromstring(stream.getvalue())
+        for parent in root.findall('.//*list-item/..'):
+            child_name = parent.tag[0:-1]
+            for child in list(parent):
+                child.tag = child_name
+
+        stream.truncate(0)
+        stream.seek(0)
+        stream.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>\n')
+        stream.write(ET.tostring(root).decode('utf-8'))
+
     def _to_xml(self, xml, data):
         if isinstance(data, (list, tuple)):
             for item in data:
diff --git a/tests/test_renderers.py b/tests/test_renderers.py
index 4168868..a9637f2 100644
--- a/tests/test_renderers.py
+++ b/tests/test_renderers.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
 from django.test import TestCase
 from django.test.utils import skipUnless
-from django.utils.six.moves import StringIO
+from django.utils.six import StringIO
 from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy
 from rest_framework_xml.renderers import XMLRenderer
 from rest_framework_xml.parsers import XMLParser
@@ -33,6 +33,41 @@ class XMLRendererTestCase(TestCase):
         ]
     }
 
+    _complex_order_data = {
+        "creation_date": datetime.datetime(2017, 7, 1, 14, 30, 00),
+        "orderId": 1,
+        "positions": [
+            {
+                "posNo": 1,
+                "amount": 3,
+                "messages": [
+                    {
+                        "type": "O",
+                        "code": "xyz"
+                    },
+                    {
+                        "type": "L",
+                        "code": "zyx"
+                    }
+                ]
+            },
+            {
+                "posNo": 2,
+                "amount": 1,
+                "messages": [
+                    {
+                        "type": "O",
+                        "code": "xyz"
+                    },
+                    {
+                        "type": "L",
+                        "code": "zyx"
+                    }
+                ]
+            }
+        ]
+    }
+
     def test_render_string(self):
         """
         Test XML rendering.
@@ -104,6 +139,14 @@ def test_render_lazy(self):
         content = renderer.render({'field': lazy}, 'application/xml')
         self.assertXMLContains(content, '<field>hello</field>')
 
+    def test_render_override_list_item(self):
+        renderer = XMLRenderer()
+        renderer.root_tag_name = 'order'
+        renderer.override_item_tag_name = True
+        content = renderer.render(self._complex_order_data, 'application/xml')
+        self.assertXMLContains(content, '<position>', renderer.root_tag_name)
+        self.assertXMLContains(content, '<message>', renderer.root_tag_name)
+
     @skipUnless(etree, 'defusedxml not installed')
     def test_render_and_parse_complex_data(self):
         """
@@ -117,7 +160,7 @@ def test_render_and_parse_complex_data(self):
         error_msg = "complex data differs!IN:\n %s \n\n OUT:\n %s" % (repr(self._complex_data), repr(complex_data_out))
         self.assertEqual(self._complex_data, complex_data_out, error_msg)
 
-    def assertXMLContains(self, xml, string):
-        self.assertTrue(xml.startswith('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>\n<root>'))
-        self.assertTrue(xml.endswith('</root>'))
+    def assertXMLContains(self, xml, string, root_tag='root'):
+        self.assertTrue(xml.startswith('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>\n<{0}>'.format(root_tag)))
+        self.assertTrue(xml.endswith('</{0}>'.format(root_tag)))
         self.assertTrue(string in xml, '%r not in %r' % (string, xml))