diff --git a/docs/formatdomain.html.in b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
index 8f88dd6854700253643cbfa073916c8185536f88..8c884f4af9cb4bd8ef47c6be42d8d13d5ed38fe9 100644
--- a/docs/formatdomain.html.in
+++ b/docs/formatdomain.html.in
@@ -5210,9 +5210,9 @@ qemu-kvm -net nic,model=? /dev/null
       If no target is specified, certain hypervisors will
       automatically generate a name for the created tun device. This
       name can be manually specified, however the name <i>should not
-      start with either 'vnet' or 'vif'</i>, which are prefixes
-      reserved by libvirt and certain hypervisors. Manually specified
-      targets using these prefixes may be ignored.
+      start with either 'vnet', 'vif', 'macvtap', or 'macvlan'</i>,
+      which are prefixes reserved by libvirt and certain hypervisors.
+      Manually specified targets using these prefixes may be ignored.
     </p>
 
     <p>
diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index 7f5da4e32f795b8837af42bf43003d5bf9d4dd5f..f25a60570cbca70848518f3cb1bde8acff8eec2c 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 #include "virtpm.h"
 #include "virstring.h"
 #include "virnetdev.h"
+#include "virnetdevmacvlan.h"
 #include "virhostdev.h"
 #include "virmdev.h"
 
@@ -10029,8 +10030,12 @@ virDomainNetDefParseXML(virDomainXMLOptionPtr xmlopt,
         def->data.direct.linkdev = dev;
         dev = NULL;
 
-        if (flags & VIR_DOMAIN_DEF_PARSE_INACTIVE)
+        if (ifname &&
+            flags & VIR_DOMAIN_DEF_PARSE_INACTIVE &&
+            (STRPREFIX(ifname, VIR_NET_GENERATED_MACVTAP_PREFIX) ||
+             STRPREFIX(ifname, VIR_NET_GENERATED_MACVTAP_PREFIX))) {
             VIR_FREE(ifname);
+        }
 
         break;