diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 24380ce..2a57ca4 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ julia = ">= 1.0"
 ColorVectorSpace = "c3611d14-8923-5661-9e6a-0046d554d3a4"
 Statistics = "10745b16-79ce-11e8-11f9-7d13ad32a3b2"
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
+Random = "9a3f8284-a2c9-5f02-9a11-845980a1fd5c"
 
 [targets]
-test = ["ColorVectorSpace", "Statistics", "Test"]
+test = ["ColorVectorSpace", "Statistics", "Test", "Random"]
diff --git a/src/ImageCore.jl b/src/ImageCore.jl
index 830c33a..2536c38 100644
--- a/src/ImageCore.jl
+++ b/src/ImageCore.jl
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ const GenericImage{T<:Pixel,N} = AbstractArray{T,N}
 
 export
     ## Types
+    HasDimNames,
+    HasProperties,
     StackedView,
     ## constants
     zeroarray,
@@ -75,6 +77,7 @@ export
     coords_spatial,
     height,
     indices_spatial,
+    namedaxes,
     nimages,
     pixelspacing,
     sdims,
diff --git a/src/traits.jl b/src/traits.jl
index b412acf..fa06f52 100644
--- a/src/traits.jl
+++ b/src/traits.jl
@@ -1,3 +1,56 @@
+"""
+    HasProperties(img) -> HasProperties{::Bool}
+
+Returns the trait `HasProperties`, indicating whether `x` has `properties`
+method.
+"""
+struct HasProperties{T} end
+
+HasProperties(img::T) where T = HasProperties(T)
+
+HasProperties(::Type{T}) where T = HasProperties{false}()
+
+"""
+    HasDimNames(img) -> HasDimNames{::Bool}
+
+Returns the trait `HasDimNames`, indicating whether `x` has named dimensions.
+Types returning `HasDimNames{true}()` should also have a `names` method that
+returns a tuple of symbols for each dimension.
+"""
+struct HasDimNames{T} end
+
+HasDimNames(img::T) where T = HasDimNames(T)
+
+HasDimNames(::Type{T}) where T = HasDimNames{false}()
+
+"""
+    namedaxes(img) -> NamedTuple{names}(axes)
+
+Returns a `NamedTuple` where the names are the dimension names and each indice
+is the corresponding dimensions's axis. If `HasDimNames` is not defined for `x`
+default names are returned. `x` should have an `axes` method.
+
+```jldoctest
+julia> using ImagesCore
+
+julia> img = reshape(1:24, 2,3,4);
+
+julia> namedaxes(img)
+(dim_1 = Base.OneTo(2), dim_2 = Base.OneTo(3), dim_3 = Base.OneTo(4))
+```
+"""
+namedaxes(img::T) where T = namedaxes(HasDimNames(T), img)
+
+namedaxes(::HasDimNames{true}, x::T) where T = NamedTuple{names(x)}(axes(x))
+
+function namedaxes(::HasDimNames{false}, img::AbstractArray{T,N}) where {T,N}
+    NamedTuple{default_names(Val(N))}(axes(img))
+end
+
+@generated function default_names(img::Val{N}) where {N}
+    :($(ntuple(i -> Symbol(:dim_, i), N)))
+end
+
 """
     pixelspacing(img) -> (sx, sy, ...)
 
diff --git a/test/traits.jl b/test/traits.jl
index 0c1a6ac..6c57442 100644
--- a/test/traits.jl
+++ b/test/traits.jl
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 using ImageCore, Colors, FixedPointNumbers, ColorVectorSpace, MappedArrays, OffsetArrays
 using Test
-using ImageCore: Pixel, NumberLike, GenericImage, GenericGrayImage
+using ImageCore: Pixel, NumberLike, GenericImage, GenericGrayImage, default_names
 
 @testset "Image traits" begin
     for (B, swap) in ((rand(UInt16(1):UInt16(20), 3, 5), false),
@@ -158,4 +158,32 @@ end
     end
 end
 
+struct RowVector{T,P} <: AbstractVector{T}
+    v::Vector{T}
+    p::P
+end
+
+ImageCore.HasDimNames(::Type{<:RowVector}) = HasDimNames{true}()
+
+ImageCore.HasProperties(::Type{<:RowVector}) = HasProperties{true}()
+
+Base.names(::RowVector) = (:row,)
+Base.axes(rv::RowVector) = axes(rv.v)
+
+
+@testset "Trait Interface" begin
+    img = reshape(1:24, 2,3,4)
+    @test @inferred(namedaxes(img)) == NamedTuple{(:dim_1, :dim_2, :dim_3)}(axes(img))
+    @test @inferred(HasDimNames(img)) == HasDimNames{false}()
+    @test @inferred(HasProperties(img)) == HasProperties{false}()
+
+    rv = RowVector([1:10...], Dict{String,Any}())
+    @test @inferred(HasDimNames(rv)) == HasDimNames{true}()
+    @test @inferred(HasProperties(rv)) == HasProperties{true}()
+    @test @inferred(namedaxes(rv)) == NamedTuple{(:row,)}((Base.OneTo(10),))
+
+    # default names
+    @test @inferred(default_names(Val(3))) == (:dim_1, :dim_2, :dim_3)
+end
+
 nothing