diff --git a/swiftbench/cli/__init__.py b/swiftbench/cli/__init__.py
index 2941071..7bc41d5 100644
--- a/swiftbench/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/swiftbench/cli/__init__.py
@@ -119,6 +119,8 @@ def main(argv):
     parser.add_argument('-C', '--num-containers', type=int,
                         help='Number of containers to distribute objects '
                              'among')
+    parser.add_argument('--container-name',
+                        help='Set the base container_name')
     parser.add_argument('-x', '--no-delete',
                         dest='delete', action='store_false',
                         help='If set, will not delete the objects created')
@@ -157,8 +159,11 @@ def main(argv):
         options.put_concurrency = options.concurrency
         options.get_concurrency = options.concurrency
         options.del_concurrency = options.concurrency
-    options.containers = ['%s_%d' % (options.container_name, i)
-                          for i in range(int(options.num_containers))]
+    if options.num_containers == 1:
+        options.containers = [options.container_name]
+    else:
+        options.containers = ['%s_%d' % (options.container_name, i)
+                              for i in range(int(options.num_containers))]
 
     # Turn "yes"/"no"/etc. strings to booleans
     options.use_proxy = config_true_value(options.use_proxy)
diff --git a/tests/test_cli.py b/tests/test_cli.py
index 4c5b99a..de820fe 100644
--- a/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ class TestCli(unittest.TestCase):
                 '--num-objects', '5000',
                 '--num-gets', '4000',
                 '--num-containers', '4',
+                '--container-name', 'foo',
                 '-x',
                 '--auth_version', '2.0',
                 '--delay', '10',
@@ -143,6 +144,9 @@ class TestCli(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(controller_opts.num_gets, 4000)
         self.assertEqual(controller_opts.num_containers, 4)
         self.assertEqual(len(controller_opts.containers), 4)
+        self.assertEqual([
+            c.startswith('foo_') for c in controller_opts.containers
+        ], [True] * 4)
         self.assertFalse(controller_opts.delete)
         self.assertEqual(controller_opts.auth_version, '2.0')
         self.assertEqual(controller_opts.delay, 10)
@@ -156,6 +160,12 @@ class TestCli(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(controller_opts.timeout, 10)
         self.assertTrue(controller_opts.containers)
 
+    def test_single_container(self):
+        controller_opts, container_opts, del_opts = self.run_main([
+            '--container-name', 'bar', '--num-containers', '1'])
+        self.assertEqual(controller_opts.num_containers, 1)
+        self.assertEqual(controller_opts.containers, ['bar'])
+
     def test_concurrency_overrides_get_put_delete(self):
         controller_opts, container_opts, del_opts = self.run_main(
             [