diff --git a/monitoring/api/v3/custom_metric.py b/monitoring/api/v3/custom_metric.py
index 61d6aac8139..c3e050bea34 100644
--- a/monitoring/api/v3/custom_metric.py
+++ b/monitoring/api/v3/custom_metric.py
@@ -59,8 +59,6 @@ def create_custom_metric(client, project_id,
                          custom_metric_type, metric_kind):
     """Create custom metric descriptor"""
     metrics_descriptor = {
-        "name": "projects/{}/metricDescriptors/{}".format(
-            project_id, custom_metric_type),
         "type": custom_metric_type,
         "labels": [
             {