diff --git a/drivers/base/platform.c b/drivers/base/platform.c
index 1ba9d617d241..d2d4926c5c4c 100644
--- a/drivers/base/platform.c
+++ b/drivers/base/platform.c
@@ -1239,6 +1239,25 @@ static int __init early_platform_driver_probe_id(char *class_str,
 		}
 
 		if (match) {
+			/*
+			 * Set up a sensible init_name to enable
+			 * dev_name() and others to be used before the
+			 * rest of the driver core is initialized.
+			 */
+			if (!match->dev.init_name) {
+				char buf[32];
+
+				if (match->id != -1)
+					snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%s.%d",
+						 match->name, match->id);
+				else
+					snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%s",
+						 match->name);
+
+				match->dev.init_name = kstrdup(buf, GFP_KERNEL);
+				if (!match->dev.init_name)
+					return -ENOMEM;
+			}
 			if (epdrv->pdrv->probe(match))
 				pr_warning("%s: unable to probe %s early.\n",
 					   class_str, match->name);
diff --git a/include/linux/device.h b/include/linux/device.h
index 182192892d45..241b96bcd7ad 100644
--- a/include/linux/device.h
+++ b/include/linux/device.h
@@ -451,6 +451,10 @@ struct device {
 
 static inline const char *dev_name(const struct device *dev)
 {
+	/* Use the init name until the kobject becomes available */
+	if (dev->init_name)
+		return dev->init_name;
+
 	return kobject_name(&dev->kobj);
 }