diff --git a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver.pm b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver.pm
index 8a5b0cd41..bfd0073d5 100644
--- a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver.pm
+++ b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver.pm
@@ -374,8 +374,11 @@ sub _get_dbconfigs
    foreach my $db ( keys %db_configs ) {
       my $db_config = $db_configs{$db};
 
-      # backwards-compatibility hacks
-      my $db_name = delete $db_config->{name};
+      # Extract the name of the module that is used to access the database. This
+      # does add a new item to the database config block, 'type'. It appears to
+      # be harmless and is used later on to determine which method to use to
+      # clear the database
+      my $db_name = $db_config->{name};
       if( defined $db_name ) {
          if( $db_name eq 'psycopg2' ) {
             $db_config->{type} = 'pg';
@@ -409,7 +412,7 @@ sub _check_db_config
 
    my $db_type = $db_config{type};
    if( $db_type eq 'pg' ) {
-      foreach (qw( database )) {
+      foreach (qw( dbname )) {
          if( !$db_config{args}->{$_} ) {
             die "Missing required database argument $_";
          }
@@ -445,7 +448,7 @@ sub _clear_db_pg
    my %args = @_;
 
    my $host = $args{host} // '';
-   $self->{output}->diag( "Clearing Pg database $args{database} on '$host'" );
+   $self->{output}->diag( "Clearing Pg database $args{dbname} on '$host'" );
 
    require DBI;
    require DBD::Pg;
@@ -455,13 +458,13 @@ sub _clear_db_pg
    # a fair few seconds)
    my $dbh = DBI->connect( "dbi:Pg:dbname=sytest_template;host=$host", $args{user}, $args{password} );
    if ( $dbh ) {
-      $dbh->do( "DROP DATABASE $args{database}" );  # we don't mind if this dies
+      $dbh->do( "DROP DATABASE $args{dbname}" );  # we don't mind if this dies
 
-      $dbh->do( "CREATE DATABASE $args{database} WITH TEMPLATE sytest_template" ) or
+      $dbh->do( "CREATE DATABASE $args{dbname} WITH TEMPLATE sytest_template" ) or
          die $dbh->errstr;
    }
    else {
-      $dbh = DBI->connect( "dbi:Pg:dbname=$args{database};host=$host", $args{user}, $args{password} )
+      $dbh = DBI->connect( "dbi:Pg:dbname=$args{dbname};host=$host", $args{user}, $args{password} )
          or die DBI->errstr;
 
       foreach my $row ( @{ $dbh->selectall_arrayref( "SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = 'public'" ) } ) {
diff --git a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Dendrite.pm b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Dendrite.pm
index 666d08e22..cbf8db7f7 100644
--- a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Dendrite.pm
+++ b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Dendrite.pm
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ sub _get_config
       $db_config{args}->{user},
       $db_config{args}->{password},
       "", # $db_config{args}->{host},
-      $db_config{args}->{database},
+      $db_config{args}->{dbname},
       $db_config{args}->{sslmode},
    );
 
diff --git a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Synapse.pm b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Synapse.pm
index 1ef7dbd5a..e50fa3283 100644
--- a/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Synapse.pm
+++ b/lib/SyTest/Homeserver/Synapse.pm
@@ -125,21 +125,6 @@ sub start
       },
    );
 
-   # convert sytest db args onto synapse db args
-   for my $db ( keys %db_configs ) {
-      my %db_config = %{ $db_configs{$db} };
-
-      my $db_type = $db_config{type};
-
-      if( $db_type eq "pg" ) {
-         $db_configs{$db}{name} = 'psycopg2';
-      }
-      else {
-         # must be sqlite
-         $db_configs{$db}{name} = 'sqlite3';
-      }
-   }
-
    # Clean up the media_store directory each time, or else it fills up with
    # thousands of automatically-generated avatar images
    if( -d "$hs_dir/media_store" ) {
diff --git a/scripts/prep_sytest_for_postgres.sh b/scripts/prep_sytest_for_postgres.sh
index a976971a4..bccdcf6b4 100755
--- a/scripts/prep_sytest_for_postgres.sh
+++ b/scripts/prep_sytest_for_postgres.sh
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ mkdir -p "server-1"
 cat > "server-0/database.yaml" << EOF
 name: psycopg2
 args:
-    database: $POSTGRES_DB_1
+    dbname: $POSTGRES_DB_1
     user: $PGUSER
     password: $PGPASSWORD
     host: localhost
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ EOF
 cat > "server-1/database.yaml" << EOF
 name: psycopg2
 args:
-    database: $POSTGRES_DB_2
+    dbname: $POSTGRES_DB_2
     user: $PGUSER
     password: $PGPASSWORD
     host: localhost
diff --git a/scripts/synapse_sytest.sh b/scripts/synapse_sytest.sh
index 9cfabf924..e76036ea1 100755
--- a/scripts/synapse_sytest.sh
+++ b/scripts/synapse_sytest.sh
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ main:
     data_stores:
         - main
     args:
-        database: pg1_main
+        dbname: pg1_main
         user: postgres
         password: $PGPASSWORD
         host: localhost
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ state_db:
     data_stores:
         - state
     args:
-        database: pg1_state
+        dbname: pg1_state
         user: postgres
         password: $PGPASSWORD
         host: localhost
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ main:
     data_stores:
         - main
     args:
-        database: pg2_main
+        dbname: pg2_main
         user: postgres
         password: $PGPASSWORD
         host: localhost
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ state_db:
     data_stores:
         - state
     args:
-        database: pg2_state
+        dbname: pg2_state
         user: postgres
         password: $PGPASSWORD
         host: localhost