diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 89ae2307ae..4220b6c455 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -737,7 +737,7 @@ conf.set_quoted('GETTEXT_PACKAGE', meson.project_name())
 # substs.set('DEBUGTTY', get_option('debug-tty'))
 #endif // 0
 
-debug = get_option('debug')
+debug = get_option('debug-extra')
 enable_debug_hashmap = false
 enable_debug_mmap_cache = false
 #if 1 /// additional elogind debug mode
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index d27033fa38..5feeed5543 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -53,10 +53,10 @@ option('kexec-path', type : 'string', description : 'path to kexec')
 #        description : 'path to debug shell binary')
 # option('debug-tty', type : 'string', value : '/dev/tty9',
 #        description : 'specify the tty device for debug shell')
-# option('debug', type : 'string',
+# option('debug-extra', type : 'string',
 #        description : 'enable extra debugging (hashmap,mmap-cache)')
 #else
-option('debug', type : 'string',
+option('debug-extra', type : 'string',
        description : 'enable extra debugging (elogind,hashmap,mmap-cache)')
 #endif // 0