diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index daec87958..699b1c4ee 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -535,6 +535,12 @@ log-send-hostname [<string>]
   intermediate syslog server or for simply customizing the hostname printed in
   the logs.
 
+log-tag <string>
+  Sets the tag field in the syslog header to this string. It defaults to the
+  program name as launched from the command line, which usually is "haproxy".
+  Sometimes it can be useful to differentiate between multiple processes
+  running on the same host.
+
 nbproc <number>
   Creates <number> processes when going daemon. This requires the "daemon"
   mode. By default, only one process is created, which is the recommended mode
diff --git a/include/types/global.h b/include/types/global.h
index faf9bb28d..b6c60dd0a 100644
--- a/include/types/global.h
+++ b/include/types/global.h
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ struct global {
 	char *chroot;
 	char *pidfile;
 	char *node, *desc;		/* node name & description */
+	char *log_tag;                  /* name for syslog */
 	int logfac1, logfac2;
 	int loglev1, loglev2;
 	int minlvl1, minlvl2;
@@ -108,7 +109,6 @@ struct global {
 };
 
 extern struct global global;
-extern char *progname;          /* program name */
 extern int  pid;                /* current process id */
 extern int  relative_pid;       /* process id starting at 1 */
 extern int  actconn;            /* # of active sessions */
diff --git a/src/cfgparse.c b/src/cfgparse.c
index a67b34838..28eb1cab7 100644
--- a/src/cfgparse.c
+++ b/src/cfgparse.c
@@ -988,6 +988,15 @@ int cfg_parse_global(const char *file, int linenum, char **args, int kwm)
 		global.log_send_hostname = malloc(len + 2);
 		snprintf(global.log_send_hostname, len + 2, "%s ", name);
 	}
+	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "log-tag")) {  /* tag to report to syslog */
+		if (*(args[1]) == 0) {
+			Alert("parsing [%s:%d] : '%s' expects a tag for use in syslog.\n", file, linenum, args[0]);
+			err_code |= ERR_ALERT | ERR_FATAL;
+			goto out;
+		}
+		free(global.log_tag);
+		global.log_tag = strdup(args[1]);
+	}
 	else if (!strcmp(args[0], "spread-checks")) {  /* random time between checks (0-50) */
 		if (global.spread_checks != 0) {
 			Alert("parsing [%s:%d]: spread-checks already specified. Continuing.\n", file, linenum);
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index 9ba08201a..78e10290a 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -94,7 +94,6 @@
 
 /* list of config files */
 static struct list cfg_cfgfiles = LIST_HEAD_INIT(cfg_cfgfiles);
-char *progname = NULL;		/* program name */
 int  pid;			/* current process id */
 int  relative_pid = 1;		/* process id starting at 1 */
 
@@ -352,6 +351,7 @@ void init(int argc, char **argv)
 	char *cfg_pidfile = NULL;
 	int err_code = 0;
 	struct wordlist *wl;
+	char *progname;
 
 	/* NB: POSIX does not make it mandatory for gethostname() to NULL-terminate
 	 * the string in case of truncation, and at least FreeBSD appears not to do
@@ -405,6 +405,9 @@ void init(int argc, char **argv)
 	while ((tmp = strchr(progname, '/')) != NULL)
 		progname = tmp + 1;
 
+	/* the process name is used for the logs only */
+	global.log_tag = strdup(progname);
+
 	argc--; argv++;
 	while (argc > 0) {
 		char *flag;
@@ -868,6 +871,7 @@ void deinit(void)
 	protocol_unbind_all();
 
 	free(global.log_send_hostname); global.log_send_hostname = NULL;
+	free(global.log_tag); global.log_tag = NULL;
 	free(global.chroot);  global.chroot = NULL;
 	free(global.pidfile); global.pidfile = NULL;
 	free(global.node);    global.node = NULL;
diff --git a/src/log.c b/src/log.c
index d52727b6f..333cbc69d 100644
--- a/src/log.c
+++ b/src/log.c
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ void send_log(struct proxy *p, int level, const char *message, ...)
 	int nbloggers = 0;
 	char *log_ptr;
 
-	if (level < 0 || progname == NULL || message == NULL)
+	if (level < 0 || message == NULL)
 		return;
 
 	if (unlikely(date.tv_sec != tvsec || dataptr == NULL)) {
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ void send_log(struct proxy *p, int level, const char *message, ...)
 				   monthname[tm.tm_mon],
 				   tm.tm_mday, tm.tm_hour, tm.tm_min, tm.tm_sec,
 				   global.log_send_hostname ? global.log_send_hostname : "",
-				   progname, pid);
+				   global.log_tag, pid);
 		/* WARNING: depending upon implementations, snprintf may return
 		 * either -1 or the number of bytes that would be needed to store
 		 * the total message. In both cases, we must adjust it.