diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/ti/davinci_emac.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/ti/davinci_emac.c
index 06d7c9e4dcda..a1a6445b5a7e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/ti/davinci_emac.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/ti/davinci_emac.c
@@ -1385,6 +1385,11 @@ static int emac_devioctl(struct net_device *ndev, struct ifreq *ifrq, int cmd)
 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
 }
 
+static int match_first_device(struct device *dev, void *data)
+{
+	return !strncmp(dev_name(dev), "davinci_mdio", 12);
+}
+
 /**
  * emac_dev_open - EMAC device open
  * @ndev: The DaVinci EMAC network adapter
@@ -1484,8 +1489,14 @@ static int emac_dev_open(struct net_device *ndev)
 
 	/* use the first phy on the bus if pdata did not give us a phy id */
 	if (!phydev && !priv->phy_id) {
-		phy = bus_find_device_by_name(&mdio_bus_type, NULL,
-					      "davinci_mdio");
+		/* NOTE: we can't use bus_find_device_by_name() here because
+		 * the device name is not guaranteed to be 'davinci_mdio'. On
+		 * some systems it can be 'davinci_mdio.0' so we need to use
+		 * strncmp() against the first part of the string to correctly
+		 * match it.
+		 */
+		phy = bus_find_device(&mdio_bus_type, NULL, NULL,
+				      match_first_device);
 		if (phy) {
 			priv->phy_id = dev_name(phy);
 			if (!priv->phy_id || !*priv->phy_id)