diff --git a/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py b/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py
index 03d276b63f..0d07b4a429 100644
--- a/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py
+++ b/Lib/concurrent/futures/thread.py
@@ -125,8 +125,11 @@ class ThreadPoolExecutor(_base.Executor):
         # idle threads than items in the work queue.
         num_threads = len(self._threads)
         if num_threads < self._max_workers:
-            thread_name = '%s_%d' % (self._thread_name_prefix or self,
-                                     num_threads)
+            if self._thread_name_prefix:
+                thread_name = '%s_%d' % (self._thread_name_prefix,
+                                         num_threads)
+            else:
+                thread_name = None
             t = threading.Thread(name=thread_name, target=_worker,
                                  args=(weakref.ref(self, weakref_cb),
                                        self._work_queue))
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py b/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py
index 23e95b2124..5cd985363e 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_concurrent_futures.py
@@ -172,10 +172,7 @@ class ThreadPoolShutdownTest(ThreadPoolMixin, ExecutorShutdownTest, unittest.Tes
         del executor
 
         for t in threads:
-            # We don't particularly care what the default name is, just that
-            # it has a default name implying that it is a ThreadPoolExecutor
-            # followed by what looks like a thread number.
-            self.assertRegex(t.name, r'^.*ThreadPoolExecutor.*_[0-4]$')
+            self.assertRegex(t.name, r'^Thread-[0-9]+$')
             t.join()