diff --git a/Documentation/trace/histogram.rst b/Documentation/trace/histogram.rst
index 8408670d0328..3f3d1b960fe7 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/histogram.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/histogram.rst
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ Documentation written by Tom Zanussi
                                 with the event, in nanoseconds.  May be
 			        modified by .usecs to have timestamps
 			        interpreted as microseconds.
-    cpu                    int  the cpu on which the event occurred.
+    common_cpu             int  the cpu on which the event occurred.
     ====================== ==== =======================================
 
 Extended error information
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index 002412a1abf9..5240ba9a82db 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -4975,6 +4975,10 @@ static const char readme_msg[] =
 	"\t            [:name=histname1]\n"
 	"\t            [:<handler>.<action>]\n"
 	"\t            [if <filter>]\n\n"
+	"\t    Note, special fields can be used as well:\n"
+	"\t            common_timestamp - to record current timestamp\n"
+	"\t            common_cpu - to record the CPU the event happened on\n"
+	"\n"
 	"\t    When a matching event is hit, an entry is added to a hash\n"
 	"\t    table using the key(s) and value(s) named, and the value of a\n"
 	"\t    sum called 'hitcount' is incremented.  Keys and values\n"
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
index f136449821bf..553add1eb457 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
@@ -2001,7 +2001,7 @@ static const char *hist_field_name(struct hist_field *field,
 		 field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_ALIAS)
 		field_name = hist_field_name(field->operands[0], ++level);
 	else if (field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_CPU)
-		field_name = "cpu";
+		field_name = "common_cpu";
 	else if (field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_EXPR ||
 		 field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF) {
 		if (field->system) {
@@ -2873,14 +2873,24 @@ parse_field(struct hist_trigger_data *hist_data, struct trace_event_file *file,
 		hist_data->enable_timestamps = true;
 		if (*flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_TIMESTAMP_USECS)
 			hist_data->attrs->ts_in_usecs = true;
-	} else if (strcmp(field_name, "cpu") == 0)
+	} else if (strcmp(field_name, "common_cpu") == 0)
 		*flags |= HIST_FIELD_FL_CPU;
 	else {
 		field = trace_find_event_field(file->event_call, field_name);
 		if (!field || !field->size) {
-			hist_err(tr, HIST_ERR_FIELD_NOT_FOUND, errpos(field_name));
-			field = ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
-			goto out;
+			/*
+			 * For backward compatibility, if field_name
+			 * was "cpu", then we treat this the same as
+			 * common_cpu.
+			 */
+			if (strcmp(field_name, "cpu") == 0) {
+				*flags |= HIST_FIELD_FL_CPU;
+			} else {
+				hist_err(tr, HIST_ERR_FIELD_NOT_FOUND,
+					 errpos(field_name));
+				field = ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+				goto out;
+			}
 		}
 	}
  out:
@@ -5641,7 +5651,7 @@ static void hist_field_print(struct seq_file *m, struct hist_field *hist_field)
 		seq_printf(m, "%s=", hist_field->var.name);
 
 	if (hist_field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_CPU)
-		seq_puts(m, "cpu");
+		seq_puts(m, "common_cpu");
 	else if (field_name) {
 		if (hist_field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF ||
 		    hist_field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_ALIAS)