diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 3bdd87fc6b..c70a9874ad 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -683,6 +683,8 @@ endif
 
 conf.set_quoted('NOBODY_USER_NAME', nobody_user)
 conf.set_quoted('NOBODY_GROUP_NAME', nobody_group)
+substs.set('NOBODY_USER_NAME', nobody_user)
+substs.set('NOBODY_GROUP_NAME', nobody_group)
 
 tty_gid = get_option('tty-gid')
 conf.set('TTY_GID', tty_gid)
diff --git a/sysusers.d/basic.conf.in b/sysusers.d/basic.conf.in
index 78b764bdef..8e358c02d6 100644
--- a/sysusers.d/basic.conf.in
+++ b/sysusers.d/basic.conf.in
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 u root    0     "Super User" /root
 
 # The nobody user for NFS file systems
-u nobody  65534 "Nobody"     -
+u @NOBODY_USER_NAME@  65534 "Nobody"     -
 
 # Administrator group: can *see* more than normal users
 g adm     -     -            -