diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 0d415e859e..efe24ee1c3 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ This file contains a high-level description of this package's evolution. Release
 * [Enhancement] Restore use of szip compression when writing data (including writing in parallel if HDF5 version is 1.10.3 or greater). See [https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/issues/1546].
 * [Enhancement] Enable use of compact storage option for small vars in netCDF/HDF5 files. See [https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/issues/1570].
 * [Enhancement] Updated benchmarking program bm_file.c to better handle very large files. See [https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/issues/1555].
+* [Enhancement] Increased size of maximum allowed name in HDF4 files to NC_MAX_NAME. See [https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/issues/1631].
 
 ## 4.7.3 - November 20, 2019
 
diff --git a/include/hdf4dispatch.h b/include/hdf4dispatch.h
index c8dcffee71..f2dfdab13f 100644
--- a/include/hdf4dispatch.h
+++ b/include/hdf4dispatch.h
@@ -14,10 +14,6 @@
 #include "config.h"
 #include "ncdispatch.h"
 
-/** This is the max size of an SD dataset name in HDF4 (from HDF4
- * documentation).*/
-#define NC_MAX_HDF4_NAME 64
-
 /** This is the max number of dimensions for a HDF4 SD dataset (from
  * HDF4 documentation). */
 #define NC_MAX_HDF4_DIMS 32
diff --git a/include/netcdf.h b/include/netcdf.h
index cc8370f2b8..bb723af219 100644
--- a/include/netcdf.h
+++ b/include/netcdf.h
@@ -276,8 +276,11 @@ NOTE: The NC_MAX_DIMS, NC_MAX_ATTRS, and NC_MAX_VARS limits
 #define NC_MAX_VAR_DIMS 1024 /**< max per variable dimensions */
 /**@}*/
 
-/** This is the max size of an SD dataset name in HDF4 (from HDF4 documentation).*/
-#define NC_MAX_HDF4_NAME 64
+/** The max size of an SD dataset name in HDF4 (from HDF4
+ * documentation) is 64. But in in the wild we have encountered longer
+ * names. As long as the HDF4 name is not greater than NC_MAX_NAME,
+ * our code will be OK. */
+#define NC_MAX_HDF4_NAME NC_MAX_NAME
 
 /** In HDF5 files you can set the endianness of variables with
     nc_def_var_endian(). This define is used there. */