diff --git a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c
index 42fb2fd24c0c03cd20b21dab5038fde07d3be30c..83c3fe3a136be87ab87eedb32ad7b5dac05840e3 100644
--- a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c
+++ b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c
@@ -438,6 +438,7 @@ int gpio_export(unsigned gpio, bool direction_may_change)
 	unsigned long		flags;
 	struct gpio_desc	*desc;
 	int			status = -EINVAL;
+	char			*ioname = NULL;
 
 	/* can't export until sysfs is available ... */
 	if (!gpio_class.p) {
@@ -461,11 +462,14 @@ int gpio_export(unsigned gpio, bool direction_may_change)
 	}
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&gpio_lock, flags);
 
+	if (desc->chip->names && desc->chip->names[gpio - desc->chip->base])
+		ioname = desc->chip->names[gpio - desc->chip->base];
+
 	if (status == 0) {
 		struct device	*dev;
 
 		dev = device_create(&gpio_class, desc->chip->dev, MKDEV(0, 0),
-					desc, "gpio%d", gpio);
+				    desc, ioname ? ioname : "gpio%d", gpio);
 		if (dev) {
 			if (direction_may_change)
 				status = sysfs_create_group(&dev->kobj,
@@ -513,6 +517,7 @@ void gpio_unexport(unsigned gpio)
 	mutex_lock(&sysfs_lock);
 
 	desc = &gpio_desc[gpio];
+
 	if (test_bit(FLAG_EXPORT, &desc->flags)) {
 		struct device	*dev = NULL;
 
diff --git a/include/asm-generic/gpio.h b/include/asm-generic/gpio.h
index 81797ec9ab2917413ba28d166adb267726c8f177..d6c379dc64fac63797364c7e385dc91778df5ac4 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/gpio.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/gpio.h
@@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ struct module;
  *	handled is (base + ngpio - 1).
  * @can_sleep: flag must be set iff get()/set() methods sleep, as they
  *	must while accessing GPIO expander chips over I2C or SPI
+ * @names: if set, must be an array of strings to use as alternative
+ *      names for the GPIOs in this chip. Any entry in the array
+ *      may be NULL if there is no alias for the GPIO, however the
+ *      array must be @ngpio entries long.
  *
  * A gpio_chip can help platforms abstract various sources of GPIOs so
  * they can all be accessed through a common programing interface.
@@ -92,6 +96,7 @@ struct gpio_chip {
 						struct gpio_chip *chip);
 	int			base;
 	u16			ngpio;
+	char			**names;
 	unsigned		can_sleep:1;
 	unsigned		exported:1;
 };