diff --git a/include/exec/tswap.h b/include/exec/tswap.h
index ecd4faef015..0113ff88fcc 100644
--- a/include/exec/tswap.h
+++ b/include/exec/tswap.h
@@ -11,15 +11,15 @@
 #include "qemu/bswap.h"
 
 /**
- * target_words_bigendian:
- * Returns true if the (default) endianness of the target is big endian,
- * false otherwise. Note that in target-specific code, you can use
- * TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN directly instead. On the other hand, common
- * code should normally never need to know about the endianness of the
- * target, so please do *not* use this function unless you know very well
- * what you are doing!
+ * qemu_binary_is_bigendian: Returns QEMU binary default endianness
+ *
+ * Returns whether the QEMU binary is built for big endianness flavor
+ * by default.
+ * vCPUs use this flavor by default when their endianness is not specified.
+ *
+ * This is not a clear API so please do *not* use this function.
  */
-bool target_words_bigendian(void);
+bool qemu_binary_is_bigendian(void);
 
 /*
  * If we're in target-specific code, we can hard-code the swapping
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ bool target_words_bigendian(void);
 #ifdef COMPILING_PER_TARGET
 #define target_needs_bswap()  (HOST_BIG_ENDIAN != TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN)
 #else
-#define target_needs_bswap()  (HOST_BIG_ENDIAN != target_words_bigendian())
+#define target_needs_bswap()  (HOST_BIG_ENDIAN != qemu_binary_is_bigendian())
 #endif /* COMPILING_PER_TARGET */
 
 static inline uint16_t tswap16(uint16_t s)
diff --git a/cpu-target.c b/cpu-target.c
index 499facf7747..ff8c55a810a 100644
--- a/cpu-target.c
+++ b/cpu-target.c
@@ -463,7 +463,7 @@ out:
 }
 #endif
 
-bool target_words_bigendian(void)
+bool qemu_binary_is_bigendian(void)
 {
     return TARGET_BIG_ENDIAN;
 }
diff --git a/disas/disas-common.c b/disas/disas-common.c
index de61f6d8a12..7377de0715c 100644
--- a/disas/disas-common.c
+++ b/disas/disas-common.c
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ void disas_initialize_debug_target(CPUDebug *s, CPUState *cpu)
 
     s->cpu = cpu;
     s->info.print_address_func = print_address;
-    if (target_words_bigendian()) {
+    if (qemu_binary_is_bigendian()) {
         s->info.endian = BFD_ENDIAN_BIG;
     } else {
         s->info.endian =  BFD_ENDIAN_LITTLE;
diff --git a/hw/core/cpu-sysemu.c b/hw/core/cpu-sysemu.c
index 2a9a2a4eb54..4b85face02b 100644
--- a/hw/core/cpu-sysemu.c
+++ b/hw/core/cpu-sysemu.c
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ bool cpu_virtio_is_big_endian(CPUState *cpu)
     if (cc->sysemu_ops->virtio_is_big_endian) {
         return cc->sysemu_ops->virtio_is_big_endian(cpu);
     }
-    return target_words_bigendian();
+    return qemu_binary_is_bigendian();
 }
 
 GuestPanicInformation *cpu_get_crash_info(CPUState *cpu)
diff --git a/hw/core/generic-loader.c b/hw/core/generic-loader.c
index ea8628b8926..abdd4c08a38 100644
--- a/hw/core/generic-loader.c
+++ b/hw/core/generic-loader.c
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ static void generic_loader_realize(DeviceState *dev, Error **errp)
         s->cpu = first_cpu;
     }
 
-    big_endian = target_words_bigendian();
+    big_endian = qemu_binary_is_bigendian();
 
     if (s->file) {
         AddressSpace *as = s->cpu ? s->cpu->as :  NULL;
diff --git a/hw/display/vga.c b/hw/display/vga.c
index 6dbbbf49073..6be02006000 100644
--- a/hw/display/vga.c
+++ b/hw/display/vga.c
@@ -2116,7 +2116,7 @@ static bool vga_endian_state_needed(void *opaque)
      * default one, thus ensuring backward compatibility for
      * migration of the common case
      */
-    return s->big_endian_fb != target_words_bigendian();
+    return s->big_endian_fb != qemu_binary_is_bigendian();
 }
 
 static const VMStateDescription vmstate_vga_endian = {
@@ -2264,7 +2264,7 @@ bool vga_common_init(VGACommonState *s, Object *obj, Error **errp)
      * into a device attribute set by the machine/platform to remove
      * all target endian dependencies from this file.
      */
-    s->big_endian_fb = target_words_bigendian();
+    s->big_endian_fb = qemu_binary_is_bigendian();
 
     vga_dirty_log_start(s);
 
diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index f12c4aa81eb..b3dede476ed 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -2248,7 +2248,7 @@ int virtio_set_status(VirtIODevice *vdev, uint8_t val)
 
 static enum virtio_device_endian virtio_default_endian(void)
 {
-    if (target_words_bigendian()) {
+    if (qemu_binary_is_bigendian()) {
         return VIRTIO_DEVICE_ENDIAN_BIG;
     } else {
         return VIRTIO_DEVICE_ENDIAN_LITTLE;
diff --git a/system/qtest.c b/system/qtest.c
index 12703a20455..8675a0bd316 100644
--- a/system/qtest.c
+++ b/system/qtest.c
@@ -704,7 +704,7 @@ static void qtest_process_command(CharBackend *chr, gchar **words)
         qtest_send(chr, "OK\n");
     } else if (strcmp(words[0], "endianness") == 0) {
         qtest_send_prefix(chr);
-        if (target_words_bigendian()) {
+        if (qemu_binary_is_bigendian()) {
             qtest_sendf(chr, "OK big\n");
         } else {
             qtest_sendf(chr, "OK little\n");
