diff --git a/job.sums b/job.sums
index fb4d7b4..6d4e6b4 100644
--- a/job.sums
+++ b/job.sums
@@ -16,6 +16,6 @@ libqpdf/qpdf/auto_job_json_decl.hh 7dbb83ddadcea39bfd1faa4ca061e1e3c3134d693b8ae
 libqpdf/qpdf/auto_job_json_init.hh e9cacbcb78ca250a962c226a935067ef9b76f5485bae7e5302eea0a1a8e2ff65
 libqpdf/qpdf/auto_job_schema.hh 2b974a436c5b4d03fb38258d6213f993cfa9f673834cebe754b4c7ad657481c9
 manual/_ext/qpdf.py 6add6321666031d55ed4aedf7c00e5662bba856dfcd66ccb526563bffefbb580
-manual/cli.rst 0b0f6a1d8ec523751d91999586bca1356abd8f17e207bc0139ce5d7dfd64fdb4
+manual/cli.rst be2b9366e953fce743c115db00eeedc7894e547a9222133395e929f535fa9836
 manual/qpdf.1 c1d6e58e37aed1b8d434b37edd1837b7261c9933b09d64bf3915dc3f35d6cccb
 manual/qpdf.1.in 436ecc85d45c4c9e2dbd1725fb7f0177fb627179469f114561adf3cb6cbb677b
diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDF_json.cc b/libqpdf/QPDF_json.cc
index e2417ec..baf870a 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDF_json.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDF_json.cc
@@ -146,13 +146,13 @@ is_binary_string(std::string const& v, std::string& str)
 static bool
 is_name(std::string const& v)
 {
-    return ((v.length() > 1) && (v.at(0) == '/'));
+    return v.starts_with('/');
 }
 
 static bool
 is_pdf_name(std::string const& v)
 {
-    return ((v.length() > 3) && (v.substr(0, 3) == "n:/"));
+    return v.starts_with("n:/");
 }
 
 bool
@@ -203,10 +203,15 @@ QPDF::test_json_validators()
     check(is_binary_string("b:12", str));
     check(is_binary_string("b:123aBC", str));
     check(!is_name(""));
-    check(!is_name("/"));
+    check(is_name("/"));
     check(!is_name("xyz"));
     check(is_name("/Potato"));
     check(is_name("/Potato Salad"));
+    check(!is_pdf_name("n:"));
+    check(is_pdf_name("n:/"));
+    check(!is_pdf_name("n:xyz"));
+    check(is_pdf_name("n:/Potato"));
+    check(is_pdf_name("n:/Potato Salad"));
 
     return passed;
 #undef check_arg
diff --git a/manual/release-notes.rst b/manual/release-notes.rst
index ad0c8a2..655a0a4 100644
--- a/manual/release-notes.rst
+++ b/manual/release-notes.rst
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ more detail.
       flag was only set to true if the field is not a top-level field,
       and remained unchanged otherwise.
 
+    - When parsing qpdf JSON input files allow empty name objects. These are
+      allowed by the PDF specification but were previously rejected.
+
   - Library Enhancements
 
     - Add ``QPDFNameTreeObjectHelper`` and ``QPDFNumberTreeObjectHelper``