diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_main.c
index b0ccd3c2eec6..3a6a752c6c58 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_main.c
@@ -9690,8 +9690,13 @@ static int i40e_config_netdev(struct i40e_vsi *vsi)
 		i40e_add_mac_filter(vsi, mac_addr);
 		spin_unlock_bh(&vsi->mac_filter_hash_lock);
 	} else {
-		/* relate the VSI_VMDQ name to the VSI_MAIN name */
-		snprintf(netdev->name, IFNAMSIZ, "%sv%%d",
+		/* Relate the VSI_VMDQ name to the VSI_MAIN name. Note that we
+		 * are still limited by IFNAMSIZ, but we're adding 'v%d\0' to
+		 * the end, which is 4 bytes long, so force truncation of the
+		 * original name by IFNAMSIZ - 4
+		 */
+		snprintf(netdev->name, IFNAMSIZ, "%.*sv%%d",
+			 IFNAMSIZ - 4,
 			 pf->vsi[pf->lan_vsi]->netdev->name);
 		random_ether_addr(mac_addr);