diff --git a/lib/apiauth.php b/lib/apiauth.php
index 5090871cfe..f63c84d8f3 100644
--- a/lib/apiauth.php
+++ b/lib/apiauth.php
@@ -235,7 +235,11 @@ class ApiAuthAction extends ApiAction
     {
         $this->basicAuthProcessHeader();
 
-        $realm = common_config('site', 'name') . ' API';
+        $realm = common_config('api', 'realm');
+
+        if (empty($realm)) {
+            $realm = common_config('site', 'name') . ' API';
+        }
 
         if (!isset($this->auth_user_nickname) && $required) {
             header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="' . $realm . '"');
diff --git a/lib/default.php b/lib/default.php
index bdd78d4d86..46d3d4774f 100644
--- a/lib/default.php
+++ b/lib/default.php
@@ -293,4 +293,6 @@ $default =
         array('crawldelay' => 0,
               'disallow' => array('main', 'settings', 'admin', 'search', 'message')
               ),
+        'api' =>
+        array('realm' => null),
         );