diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index d13b2e783575c935017f77cb546e89902ec557bc..cc8010ee20d83898f0488916e949a0c67aabec0e 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -3980,6 +3980,15 @@ const char *bdrv_get_device_name(const BlockDriverState *bs)
     return bs->blk ? blk_name(bs->blk) : "";
 }
 
+/* This can be used to identify nodes that might not have a device
+ * name associated. Since node and device names live in the same
+ * namespace, the result is unambiguous. The exception is if both are
+ * absent, then this returns an empty (non-null) string. */
+const char *bdrv_get_device_or_node_name(const BlockDriverState *bs)
+{
+    return bs->blk ? blk_name(bs->blk) : bs->node_name;
+}
+
 int bdrv_get_flags(BlockDriverState *bs)
 {
     return bs->open_flags;
diff --git a/block/quorum.c b/block/quorum.c
index 437b12251db8deb432795db775944113e5b1d4c5..f91ef75a842470ff2728195ad79b6b989eb000f5 100644
--- a/block/quorum.c
+++ b/block/quorum.c
@@ -226,10 +226,7 @@ static void quorum_report_bad(QuorumAIOCB *acb, char *node_name, int ret)
 
 static void quorum_report_failure(QuorumAIOCB *acb)
 {
-    const char *reference = bdrv_get_device_name(acb->common.bs)[0] ?
-                            bdrv_get_device_name(acb->common.bs) :
-                            acb->common.bs->node_name;
-
+    const char *reference = bdrv_get_device_or_node_name(acb->common.bs);
     qapi_event_send_quorum_failure(reference, acb->sector_num,
                                    acb->nb_sectors, &error_abort);
 }
diff --git a/include/block/block.h b/include/block/block.h
index 4c57d63fe2607a2f61d5b5765871dd5ad59a6d4d..b285e0d65960e50eb79d12e9d884ff3fcb13062c 100644
--- a/include/block/block.h
+++ b/include/block/block.h
@@ -398,6 +398,7 @@ void bdrv_iterate_format(void (*it)(void *opaque, const char *name),
                          void *opaque);
 const char *bdrv_get_node_name(const BlockDriverState *bs);
 const char *bdrv_get_device_name(const BlockDriverState *bs);
+const char *bdrv_get_device_or_node_name(const BlockDriverState *bs);
 int bdrv_get_flags(BlockDriverState *bs);
 int bdrv_write_compressed(BlockDriverState *bs, int64_t sector_num,
                           const uint8_t *buf, int nb_sectors);