diff --git a/django/contrib/admindocs/utils.py b/django/contrib/admindocs/utils.py
index 5aaf37bb9a..977fceced2 100644
--- a/django/contrib/admindocs/utils.py
+++ b/django/contrib/admindocs/utils.py
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ def parse_rst(text, default_reference_context, thing_being_parsed=None):
     """
     overrides = {
         'doctitle_xform': True,
-        'inital_header_level': 3,
+        'initial_header_level': 3,
         "default_reference_context": default_reference_context,
         "link_base": reverse('django-admindocs-docroot').rstrip('/'),
         'raw_enabled': False,
diff --git a/tests/admin_docs/tests.py b/tests/admin_docs/tests.py
index 0a2ec012aa..4b8707adcd 100644
--- a/tests/admin_docs/tests.py
+++ b/tests/admin_docs/tests.py
@@ -485,3 +485,8 @@ class TestUtils(AdminDocsTestCase):
             '</p>\n'
         )
         self.assertHTMLEqual(description_output, description_rendered)
+
+    def test_initial_header_level(self):
+        header = 'should be h3...\n\nHeader\n------\n'
+        output = utils.parse_rst(header, 'header')
+        self.assertIn('<h3>Header</h3>', output)