diff --git a/cloudinit/distros/ug_util.py b/cloudinit/distros/ug_util.py
index 2d0a887e7c4..53ad0a7d20b 100644
--- a/cloudinit/distros/ug_util.py
+++ b/cloudinit/distros/ug_util.py
@@ -134,13 +134,14 @@ def _normalize_users(u_cfg, def_user_cfg=None):
             # Now merge the extracted groups with the default config provided
             users_groups = util.uniq_merge_sorted(parsed_groups, def_groups)
             parsed_config["groups"] = ",".join(users_groups)
-            # The real config for the default user is the combination of the
-            # default user config provided by the distro, the default user
-            # config provided by the above merging for the user 'default' and
-            # then the parsed config from the user's 'real name' which does not
-            # have to be 'default' (but could be)
+            # The real config for the default user is the combination of:
+            # - the parsed config from the user's 'real name' which does
+            #   not have to be 'default' (but could be)
+            # - then the default user config provided by the above merging
+            #   for the user 'default'
+            # - then the default user config provided by the distro not
             users[def_user] = util.mergemanydict(
-                [def_user_cfg, def_config, parsed_config]
+                [parsed_config, def_config, def_user_cfg]
             )
 
     # Ensure that only the default user that we found (if any) is actually
diff --git a/tests/unittests/distros/test_user_data_normalize.py b/tests/unittests/distros/test_user_data_normalize.py
index a1a77d1a0e9..925a5a93855 100644
--- a/tests/unittests/distros/test_user_data_normalize.py
+++ b/tests/unittests/distros/test_user_data_normalize.py
@@ -196,6 +196,30 @@ def test_users_dict_default_additional(self):
         assert users["bob"]["blah"] is True
         assert users["bob"]["default"] is True
 
+    def test_users_dict_override_default_attribute(self):
+        distro = self._make_distro("ubuntu", bcfg)
+        ug_cfg = {
+            "users": ["default", {"name": "bob", "lock_passwd": False}],
+        }
+        users, _ = self._norm(ug_cfg, distro)
+
+        assert "bob" in users
+        assert "name" not in users["bob"]
+
+        for key, val in bcfg.items():
+            if key == "lock_passwd":
+                # Assert that the default user config is True
+                assert val is True
+                # Assert that the resolved value
+                # matches the passed config: False
+                assert users["bob"][key] is False
+            elif key == "groups":
+                assert users["bob"][key] == ",".join(val)
+            elif key != "name":
+                assert users["bob"][key] == val
+
+        assert users["bob"]["default"] is True
+
     def test_users_dict_extract(self):
         distro = self._make_distro("ubuntu", bcfg)
         ug_cfg = {