diff --git a/include/linux/uts.h b/include/linux/uts.h
index 73eb1ed36ec4cdb19b92a33b146b632ac9378f38..6ddbd86377dec3375549f2f02ef5c7c47fa9bfb3 100644
--- a/include/linux/uts.h
+++ b/include/linux/uts.h
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 #endif
 
 #ifndef UTS_NODENAME
-#define UTS_NODENAME "(none)"	/* set by sethostname() */
+#define UTS_NODENAME CONFIG_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME /* set by sethostname() */
 #endif
 
 #ifndef UTS_DOMAINNAME
diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig
index ebafac4231eeff15883809419e6df0c211b90e1a..e0a22e42d39a08b4745eac250389dd4bd1799ac7 100644
--- a/init/Kconfig
+++ b/init/Kconfig
@@ -204,6 +204,15 @@ config KERNEL_LZO
 
 endchoice
 
+config DEFAULT_HOSTNAME
+	string "Default hostname"
+	default "(none)"
+	help
+	  This option determines the default system hostname before userspace
+	  calls sethostname(2). The kernel traditionally uses "(none)" here,
+	  but you may wish to use a different default here to make a minimal
+	  system more usable with less configuration.
+
 config SWAP
 	bool "Support for paging of anonymous memory (swap)"
 	depends on MMU && BLOCK