diff --git a/gio/gicon.c b/gio/gicon.c
index 5f943f5..4f73d75 100644
--- a/gio/gicon.c
+++ b/gio/gicon.c
@@ -199,8 +199,8 @@
  *   native, the returned string is the result of g_file_get_uri()
  *   (such as `sftp://path/to/my%20icon.png`).
  * 
- * - If @icon is a #GThemedIcon with exactly one name, the encoding is
- *    simply the name (such as `network-server`).
+ * - If @icon is a #GThemedIcon with exactly one name and no fallbacks,
+ *   the encoding is simply the name (such as `network-server`).
  *
  * Virtual: to_tokens
  * Returns: (nullable): An allocated NUL-terminated UTF8 string or
@@ -237,15 +237,23 @@
     }
   else if (G_IS_THEMED_ICON (icon))
     {
-      const char * const *names;
+      char     **names                 = NULL;
+      gboolean   use_default_fallbacks = FALSE;
 
-      names = g_themed_icon_get_names (G_THEMED_ICON (icon));
+      g_object_get (G_OBJECT (icon),
+                    "names",                 &names,
+                    "use-default-fallbacks", &use_default_fallbacks,
+                    NULL);
+      /* Themed icon initialized with a single name and no fallbacks. */
       if (names != NULL &&
 	  names[0] != NULL &&
 	  names[0][0] != '.' && /* Allowing icons starting with dot would break G_ICON_SERIALIZATION_MAGIC0 */
 	  g_utf8_validate (names[0], -1, NULL) && /* Only return utf8 strings */
-	  names[1] == NULL)
+          names[1] == NULL &&
+          ! use_default_fallbacks)
 	ret = g_strdup (names[0]);
+
+      g_strfreev (names);
     }
 
   if (ret == NULL)
diff --git a/gio/tests/g-icon.c b/gio/tests/g-icon.c
index 7f87e49..13985d6 100644
--- a/gio/tests/g-icon.c
+++ b/gio/tests/g-icon.c
@@ -119,7 +119,17 @@
 
   icon = g_themed_icon_new ("network-server");
   data = g_icon_to_string (icon);
-  g_assert_cmpstr (data, ==, ". GThemedIcon network-server network-server-symbolic");
+  g_assert_cmpstr (data, ==, "network-server");
+  icon2 = g_icon_new_for_string (data, &error);
+  g_assert_no_error (error);
+  g_assert (g_icon_equal (icon, icon2));
+  g_free (data);
+  g_object_unref (icon);
+  g_object_unref (icon2);
+
+  icon = g_themed_icon_new_with_default_fallbacks ("network-server");
+  data = g_icon_to_string (icon);
+  g_assert_cmpstr (data, ==, ". GThemedIcon network-server network network-server-symbolic network-symbolic");
   icon2 = g_icon_new_for_string (data, &error);
   g_assert_no_error (error);
   g_assert (g_icon_equal (icon, icon2));