diff --git a/roles/tox/README.rst b/roles/tox/README.rst
index c61498728..8ace6a443 100644
--- a/roles/tox/README.rst
+++ b/roles/tox/README.rst
@@ -35,6 +35,11 @@ Runs tox for a project
    Flag controlling whether to attempt to install python packages from any
    other source code repos zuul has checked out. Defaults to True.
 
+.. zuul:rolevar:: tox_package_name
+
+   Allows a user to setup the package name to be used by tox, over reading
+   a setup.cfg file in the project.
+
 .. zuul:rolevar:: zuul_work_dir
    :default: {{ zuul.project.src_dir }}
 
diff --git a/roles/tox/library/tox_install_sibling_packages.py b/roles/tox/library/tox_install_sibling_packages.py
index bb7319c6a..6f8981274 100644
--- a/roles/tox/library/tox_install_sibling_packages.py
+++ b/roles/tox/library/tox_install_sibling_packages.py
@@ -287,11 +287,13 @@ def main():
         argument_spec=dict(
             tox_show_config=dict(required=True, type='path'),
             tox_constraints_file=dict(type='str'),
+            tox_package_name=dict(type='str'),
             project_dir=dict(required=True, type='str'),
             projects=dict(required=True, type='list'),
         )
     )
     constraints = module.params.get('tox_constraints_file')
+    tox_package_name = module.params.get('tox_package_name')
     project_dir = module.params['project_dir']
     projects = module.params['projects']
     tox_show_config = module.params.get('tox_show_config')
@@ -308,19 +310,23 @@ def main():
 
     log.append('Using envlist: {}'.format(envlist))
 
-    if not os.path.exists(os.path.join(project_dir, 'setup.cfg')):
+    if (not tox_package_name
+        and not os.path.exists(os.path.join(project_dir, 'setup.cfg'))
+    ):
         module.exit_json(changed=False, msg="No setup.cfg, no action needed")
     if constraints and not os.path.exists(constraints):
         module.fail_json(msg="Constraints file {constraints} was not found")
 
     # Who are we?
-    try:
-        c = configparser.ConfigParser()
-        c.read(os.path.join(project_dir, 'setup.cfg'))
-        package_name = c.get('metadata', 'name')
-    except Exception:
-        module.exit_json(
-            changed=False, msg="No name in setup.cfg, skipping siblings")
+    package_name = tox_package_name
+    if not package_name:
+        try:
+            c = configparser.ConfigParser()
+            c.read(os.path.join(project_dir, 'setup.cfg'))
+            package_name = c.get('metadata', 'name')
+        except Exception:
+            module.exit_json(
+                changed=False, msg="No name in setup.cfg, skipping siblings")
 
     log.append(
         "Processing siblings for {name} from {project_dir}".format(
diff --git a/roles/tox/tasks/siblings.yaml b/roles/tox/tasks/siblings.yaml
index 8a19642c9..74eb643fc 100644
--- a/roles/tox/tasks/siblings.yaml
+++ b/roles/tox/tasks/siblings.yaml
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@
   tox_install_sibling_packages:
     tox_show_config: "{{ _tox_show_config_tempfile.path }}"
     tox_constraints_file: "{{ tox_constraints_file | default(omit) }}"
+    tox_package_name: "{{ tox_package_name | default(omit) }}"
     project_dir: "{{ zuul_work_dir }}"
     projects: "{{ zuul.projects.values() | selectattr('required') | list }}"