diff --git a/instrumentation/http/README.md b/instrumentation/http/README.md
index e029feed06..a342fca7b4 100644
--- a/instrumentation/http/README.md
+++ b/instrumentation/http/README.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ instructions on what to put into http spans, and sampling policy.
 By default, the following are added to both http client and server spans:
 * Span.name as the http method in lowercase: ex "get"
 * Tags/binary annotations:
+  * "http.method", eg "GET"
   * "http.path", which does not include query parameters.
   * "http.status_code" when the status us not success.
   * "error", when there is an exception or status is >=400
@@ -20,15 +21,14 @@ Naming and tags are configurable in a library-agnostic way. For example,
 the same `HttpTracing` component configures OkHttp or Apache HttpClient
 identically.
 
-For example, to change the span and tag naming policy for clients, you
-can do something like this:
+For example, to change the tagging policy for clients, you can do
+something like this:
 
 ```java
 httpTracing = httpTracing.toBuilder()
     .clientParser(new HttpClientParser() {
       @Override
       public <Req> void request(HttpAdapter<Req, ?> adapter, Req req, SpanCustomizer customizer) {
-        customizer.name(adapter.method(req).toLowerCase() + " " + adapter.path(req));
         customizer.tag(TraceKeys.HTTP_URL, adapter.url(req)); // the whole url, not just the path
       }
     })
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ apache = TracingHttpClientBuilder.create(httpTracing.clientOf("s3"));
 okhttp = TracingCallFactory.create(httpTracing.clientOf("sqs"), new OkHttpClient());
 ```
 
-If you just want to control span naming policy, override `spanName` in
-your client or server parser.
+If you just want to control span naming policy based on the request,
+override `spanName` in your client or server parser.
 
 Ex:
 ```java
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@ overrideSpanName = new HttpClientParser() {
 };
 ```
 
+Note that span name can be overwritten any time, for example, when
+parsing the response.
+
 ## Sampling Policy
 The default sampling policy is to use the default (trace ID) sampler for
 server and client requests.
diff --git a/instrumentation/http/src/main/java/brave/http/HttpParser.java b/instrumentation/http/src/main/java/brave/http/HttpParser.java
index e301ad72b2..1913f7462e 100644
--- a/instrumentation/http/src/main/java/brave/http/HttpParser.java
+++ b/instrumentation/http/src/main/java/brave/http/HttpParser.java
@@ -6,15 +6,22 @@
 public class HttpParser {
   /**
    * Override to change what data from the http request are parsed into the span representing it. By
-   * default, this sets the span name to the http method and tags "http.path"
+   * default, this sets the span name to the http method and tags "http.method" and "http.path".
    *
    * <p>If you only want to change the span name, you can override {@link #spanName(HttpAdapter,
    * Object)} instead.
    *
    * @see #spanName(HttpAdapter, Object)
    */
+  // Eventhough the default span name is the method, we have no way of knowing that a user hasn't
+  // overwritten the name to something else. If that occurs during response parsing, it is too late
+  // to go back and get the http method. Adding http method by default ensures span naming doesn't
+  // prevent basic HTTP info from being visible. A cost of this is another tag, but it is small with
+  // very limited cardinality. Moreover, users who care strictly about size can override this.
   public <Req> void request(HttpAdapter<Req, ?> adapter, Req req, SpanCustomizer customizer) {
     customizer.name(spanName(adapter, req));
+    String method = adapter.method(req);
+    if (method != null) customizer.tag("http.method", method);
     String path = adapter.path(req);
     if (path != null) customizer.tag("http.path", path);
   }
@@ -66,7 +73,7 @@ protected void error(@Nullable Integer httpStatus, @Nullable Throwable error,
     if (error != null) {
       message = error.getMessage();
       if (message == null) message = error.getClass().getSimpleName();
-    } else if (httpStatus != null) {
+    } else if (httpStatus != null && httpStatus != 0) {
       message = httpStatus < 200 || httpStatus > 399 ? String.valueOf(httpStatus) : null;
     }
     if (message != null) customizer.tag("error", message);
diff --git a/instrumentation/http/src/test/java/brave/http/HttpParserTest.java b/instrumentation/http/src/test/java/brave/http/HttpParserTest.java
index 19ced5ef2b..8c294c6bb2 100644
--- a/instrumentation/http/src/test/java/brave/http/HttpParserTest.java
+++ b/instrumentation/http/src/test/java/brave/http/HttpParserTest.java
@@ -23,14 +23,16 @@ public class HttpParserTest {
     when(adapter.method(request)).thenReturn("GET");
 
     assertThat(parser.spanName(adapter, request))
-        .isEqualTo("GET");
+        .isEqualTo("GET"); // note: in practice this will become lowercase
   }
 
-  @Test public void request_addsPath() {
+  @Test public void request_addsMethodAndPath() {
+    when(adapter.method(request)).thenReturn("GET");
     when(adapter.path(request)).thenReturn("/foo");
 
     parser.request(adapter, request, customizer);
 
+    verify(customizer).tag("http.method", "GET");
     verify(customizer).tag("http.path", "/foo");
   }
 
@@ -49,6 +51,15 @@ public class HttpParserTest {
     verify(customizer).tag("error", "400");
   }
 
+  @Test public void response_statusZeroIsNotAnError() {
+    when(adapter.statusCodeAsInt(response)).thenReturn(0);
+
+    parser.response(adapter, response, null, customizer);
+
+    verify(customizer, never()).tag("http.status_code", "0");
+    verify(customizer, never()).tag("error", "0");
+  }
+
   @Test public void response_tagsErrorFromException() {
     parser.response(adapter, response, new RuntimeException("drat"), customizer);