diff --git a/drivers/base/core.c b/drivers/base/core.c
index d230ff4b3eecd24d66975ec3987880446e8deb79..4aa527b8a91381289eb175b33f46e3e418d10374 100644
--- a/drivers/base/core.c
+++ b/drivers/base/core.c
@@ -891,7 +891,8 @@ int device_add(struct device *dev)
 		set_dev_node(dev, dev_to_node(parent));
 
 	/* first, register with generic layer. */
-	error = kobject_add(&dev->kobj, dev->kobj.parent, "%s", dev_name(dev));
+	/* we require the name to be set before, and pass NULL */
+	error = kobject_add(&dev->kobj, dev->kobj.parent, NULL);
 	if (error)
 		goto Error;
 
diff --git a/lib/kobject.c b/lib/kobject.c
index a6dec32f2ddd5f683c5d1295358dc11842ebd2e7..bacf6fe4f7a0347bb958ebc85a059ab582eb93b4 100644
--- a/lib/kobject.c
+++ b/lib/kobject.c
@@ -218,6 +218,9 @@ int kobject_set_name_vargs(struct kobject *kobj, const char *fmt,
 	const char *old_name = kobj->name;
 	char *s;
 
+	if (kobj->name && !fmt)
+		return 0;
+
 	kobj->name = kvasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, fmt, vargs);
 	if (!kobj->name)
 		return -ENOMEM;