diff --git a/util/lint/checkpatch.pl b/util/lint/checkpatch.pl
index 650ddffd98..ef2faee2bb 100755
--- a/util/lint/checkpatch.pl
+++ b/util/lint/checkpatch.pl
@@ -5326,7 +5326,7 @@ sub process {
 			    $var !~ /^(?:[a-z0-9_]*|[A-Z0-9_]*)?_?[a-z][A-Z](?:_[a-z0-9_]+|_[A-Z0-9_]+)?$/ &&
 #Ignore some three character SI units explicitly, like MiB and KHz
 			    $var !~ /^(?:[a-z_]*?)_?(?:[KMGT]iB|[KMGT]?Hz)(?:_[a-z_]+)?$/) {
-				while ($var =~ m{($Ident)}g) {
+				while ($var =~ m{\b($Ident)}g) {
 					my $word = $1;
 					next if ($word !~ /[A-Z][a-z]|[a-z][A-Z]/);
 					if ($check) {