diff --git a/src/mariadb_pooling.c b/src/mariadb_pooling.c
index 15ecaac..5bdefdf 100644
--- a/src/mariadb_pooling.c
+++ b/src/mariadb_pooling.c
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ MrdbPool_initialize(MrdbPool *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
     }
 
     /* check if pool already exists */
-    if ((pn= PyDict_GetItemString(kwargs, "pool_name")))
+    if (kwargs && (pn= PyDict_GetItemString(kwargs, "pool_name")))
     {
         if (PyDict_Contains(cnx_pool, pn))
         {
@@ -125,6 +125,11 @@ MrdbPool_initialize(MrdbPool *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
             return -1;
         }
     }
+    else {
+        mariadb_throw_exception(NULL, Mariadb_ProgrammingError, 0,
+                "No pool name specified");
+        return -1;
+    }
 
     while(PyDict_Next(kwargs, &pos, &key, &value))
     {
diff --git a/test/integration/test_pooling.py b/test/integration/test_pooling.py
index abec967..af8fcb6 100644
--- a/test/integration/test_pooling.py
+++ b/test/integration/test_pooling.py
@@ -27,6 +27,12 @@ def test_connection_pools(self):
         del pool
         self.assertEqual(mariadb._CONNECTION_POOLS, {})
 
+    def test_conpy39(self):
+        try:
+            pool= mariadb.ConnectionPool()
+        except mariadb.ProgrammingError:
+            pass
+
     def test_connection_pool_conf(self):
         pool= mariadb.ConnectionPool(pool_name="test")
         default_conf= conf()