diff --git a/fs/efivarfs/vars.c b/fs/efivarfs/vars.c
index 114ff0fd4e55..2ad377818d0f 100644
--- a/fs/efivarfs/vars.c
+++ b/fs/efivarfs/vars.c
@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ int efivar_init(int (*func)(efi_char16_t *, efi_guid_t, unsigned long, void *,
 			    struct list_head *),
 		void *data, bool duplicates, struct list_head *head)
 {
-	unsigned long variable_name_size = 1024;
+	unsigned long variable_name_size = 512;
 	efi_char16_t *variable_name;
 	efi_status_t status;
 	efi_guid_t vendor_guid;
@@ -390,12 +390,13 @@ int efivar_init(int (*func)(efi_char16_t *, efi_guid_t, unsigned long, void *,
 		goto free;
 
 	/*
-	 * Per EFI spec, the maximum storage allocated for both
-	 * the variable name and variable data is 1024 bytes.
+	 * A small set of old UEFI implementations reject sizes
+	 * above a certain threshold, the lowest seen in the wild
+	 * is 512.
 	 */
 
 	do {
-		variable_name_size = 1024;
+		variable_name_size = 512;
 
 		status = efivar_get_next_variable(&variable_name_size,
 						  variable_name,
@@ -432,9 +433,13 @@ int efivar_init(int (*func)(efi_char16_t *, efi_guid_t, unsigned long, void *,
 			break;
 		case EFI_NOT_FOUND:
 			break;
+		case EFI_BUFFER_TOO_SMALL:
+			pr_warn("efivars: Variable name size exceeds maximum (%lu > 512)\n",
+				variable_name_size);
+			status = EFI_NOT_FOUND;
+			break;
 		default:
-			printk(KERN_WARNING "efivars: get_next_variable: status=%lx\n",
-				status);
+			pr_warn("efivars: get_next_variable: status=%lx\n", status);
 			status = EFI_NOT_FOUND;
 			break;
 		}