diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 18d226198..c92b98cf7 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2021-02-09  Xavier Claessens  <xavier.claessens@collabora.com>
+
+	* meson.build: s/freetype2_dep/freetype_dep/.
+
+	Many projects (e.g., fontconfig, cairo) hardcode the `freetype_dep`
+	variable name to use FreeType as subproject because that was the
+	variable name in Centricular's Meson port of FreeType.  While they
+	should stop hardcoding that variable name, it does not cost us
+	anything to keep using that name to ease transition.
+
 2021-02-09  Xavier Claessens  <xavier.claessens@collabora.com>
 
 	[meson] Fix handling of HarfBuzz library.
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index c2c8f7bc3..dc322553b 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -327,11 +327,11 @@ ft2_lib = library('freetype',
 
 
 # To be used by other projects including this one through subproject().
-freetype2_dep = declare_dependency(
+freetype_dep = declare_dependency(
   include_directories: ft2_includes,
   link_with: ft2_lib,
   version: ft2_pkgconfig_version)
-meson.override_dependency('freetype2', freetype2_dep)
+meson.override_dependency('freetype2', freetype_dep)
 
 
 # NOTE: Using both `install_dir` and `subdir` doesn't seem to work below,