diff --git a/include/qemu/error-report.h b/include/qemu/error-report.h
index a5ad95ff1b..9d197daca3 100644
--- a/include/qemu/error-report.h
+++ b/include/qemu/error-report.h
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ void error_init(const char *argv0);
 
 const char *error_get_progname(void);
 
-extern bool error_with_timestamp;
+extern bool message_with_timestamp;
 extern bool error_with_guestname;
 extern const char *error_guest_name;
 
diff --git a/softmmu/vl.c b/softmmu/vl.c
index a8876b8965..bd55468669 100644
--- a/softmmu/vl.c
+++ b/softmmu/vl.c
@@ -737,7 +737,7 @@ static void realtime_init(void)
 
 static void configure_msg(QemuOpts *opts)
 {
-    error_with_timestamp = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "timestamp", false);
+    message_with_timestamp = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "timestamp", false);
     error_with_guestname = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "guest-name", false);
 }
 
diff --git a/util/qemu-error.c b/util/qemu-error.c
index aa30f03564..52a9e013c4 100644
--- a/util/qemu-error.c
+++ b/util/qemu-error.c
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ typedef enum {
 } report_type;
 
 /* Prepend timestamp to messages */
-bool error_with_timestamp;
+bool message_with_timestamp;
 bool error_with_guestname;
 const char *error_guest_name;
 
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ static void vreport(report_type type, const char *fmt, va_list ap)
     GTimeVal tv;
     gchar *timestr;
 
-    if (error_with_timestamp && !monitor_cur()) {
+    if (message_with_timestamp && !monitor_cur()) {
         g_get_current_time(&tv);
         timestr = g_time_val_to_iso8601(&tv);
         error_printf("%s ", timestr);