Why don't you just have a title property for your view controller and add a title to your custom images for the tab?
You can do this (in iOS 5.0):
UIImage* iconSelected = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tabIconSelected.png"];
UIImage* iconNotSelected = [UIImage imageNamed:@"tabIconNotSelected.png"];
UITabBarItem *updatesListItem = [[UITabBarItem alloc] initWithTitle:@"" image:iconSelected tag:0];
[updatesListItem setFinishedSelectedImage:iconSelected withFinishedUnselectedImage:iconNotSelected];
[navigationController setTabBarItem:updatesListItem];
where tabIconSelected.pngand tabIconNotSelected.pngboth contain the header text for the tab.
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