diff --git a/hw/misc/ivshmem.c b/hw/misc/ivshmem.c
index edb22704c7..f73f0c2b17 100644
--- a/hw/misc/ivshmem.c
+++ b/hw/misc/ivshmem.c
@@ -60,8 +60,6 @@
 #define IVSHMEM(obj) \
     OBJECT_CHECK(IVShmemState, (obj), TYPE_IVSHMEM)
 
-#define IVSHMEM_MEMDEV_PROP "memdev"
-
 typedef struct Peer {
     int nb_eventfds;
     EventNotifier *eventfds;
@@ -857,8 +855,8 @@ static void pci_ivshmem_realize(PCIDevice *dev, Error **errp)
         PCI_BASE_ADDRESS_MEM_PREFETCH;
 
     if (!!s->server_chr + !!s->shmobj + !!s->hostmem != 1) {
-        error_setg(errp, "You must specify either a shmobj, a chardev"
-                   " or a hostmem");
+        error_setg(errp,
+                   "You must specify either 'shm', 'chardev' or 'x-memdev'");
         return;
     }
 
@@ -1182,7 +1180,7 @@ static void ivshmem_init(Object *obj)
 {
     IVShmemState *s = IVSHMEM(obj);
 
-    object_property_add_link(obj, IVSHMEM_MEMDEV_PROP, TYPE_MEMORY_BACKEND,
+    object_property_add_link(obj, "x-memdev", TYPE_MEMORY_BACKEND,
                              (Object **)&s->hostmem,
                              ivshmem_check_memdev_is_busy,
                              OBJ_PROP_LINK_UNREF_ON_RELEASE,
diff --git a/qemu-doc.texi b/qemu-doc.texi
index 68ca07533d..ffc3e50abb 100644
--- a/qemu-doc.texi
+++ b/qemu-doc.texi
@@ -1300,7 +1300,7 @@ a memory backend that has hugepage support:
 
 @example
 qemu-system-i386 -object memory-backend-file,size=1G,mem-path=/mnt/hugepages/my-shmem-file,id=mb1
-                 -device ivshmem,memdev=mb1
+                 -device ivshmem,x-memdev=mb1
 @end example
 
 ivshmem-server also supports hugepages mount points with the
diff --git a/tests/ivshmem-test.c b/tests/ivshmem-test.c
index 8f1a849ab4..03c7b962a3 100644
--- a/tests/ivshmem-test.c
+++ b/tests/ivshmem-test.c
@@ -393,7 +393,7 @@ static void test_ivshmem_memdev(void)
 
     /* just for the sake of checking memory-backend property */
     setup_vm_cmd(&state, "-object memory-backend-ram,size=1M,id=mb1"
-                 " -device ivshmem,memdev=mb1", false);
+                 " -device ivshmem,x-memdev=mb1", false);
 
     qtest_quit(state.qtest);
 }