diff --git a/docs/api-guide/routers.md b/docs/api-guide/routers.md
index 10a86bdf0..d3f4186ad 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/routers.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/routers.md
@@ -118,6 +118,26 @@ The above example would now generate the following URL pattern:
 
 * URL pattern: `^users/{pk}/change-password/$`  Name: `'user-change-password'`
 
+In the case you do not want to use the default name generated for your custom action, you can use the url_name parameter to customize it.
+
+For example, if you want to change the name of our custom action to `'user-change-password'`, you could write:
+
+    from myapp.permissions import IsAdminOrIsSelf
+    from rest_framework.decorators import detail_route
+    
+    class UserViewSet(ModelViewSet):
+        ...
+        
+        @detail_route(methods=['post'], permission_classes=[IsAdminOrIsSelf], url_name='change-password')
+        def set_password(self, request, pk=None):
+            ...
+
+The above example would now generate the following URL pattern:
+
+* URL pattern: `^users/{pk}/set_password/$`  Name: `'user-change-password'`
+
+You can also use url_path and url_name parameters together to obtain extra control on URL generation for custom views.
+
 For more information see the viewset documentation on [marking extra actions for routing][route-decorators].
 
 # API Guide
diff --git a/rest_framework/routers.py b/rest_framework/routers.py
index 7a2d981a3..4e3fbc4de 100644
--- a/rest_framework/routers.py
+++ b/rest_framework/routers.py
@@ -179,10 +179,11 @@ class SimpleRouter(BaseRouter):
                 initkwargs = route.initkwargs.copy()
                 initkwargs.update(method_kwargs)
                 url_path = initkwargs.pop("url_path", None) or methodname
+                url_name = initkwargs.pop("url_name", None) or url_path
                 ret.append(Route(
                     url=replace_methodname(route.url, url_path),
                     mapping={httpmethod: methodname for httpmethod in httpmethods},
-                    name=replace_methodname(route.name, url_path),
+                    name=replace_methodname(route.name, url_name),
                     initkwargs=initkwargs,
                 ))