diff --git a/api/builtins/PatchTransformer.go b/api/builtins/PatchTransformer.go
index 865d2b73f..da5adec48 100644
--- a/api/builtins/PatchTransformer.go
+++ b/api/builtins/PatchTransformer.go
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ func (p *PatchTransformerPlugin) applySMPatch(resource, patch *resource.Resource
 	err = filtersutil.ApplyToJSON(patchstrategicmerge.Filter{
 		Patch: node,
 	}, resource)
-	if resource.GetName() != "" {
+	if len(resource.Map()) != 0 {
 		resource.SetName(n)
 		resource.SetNamespace(ns)
 	}
diff --git a/plugin/builtin/patchtransformer/PatchTransformer.go b/plugin/builtin/patchtransformer/PatchTransformer.go
index 9d7b1e1a5..d856453d2 100644
--- a/plugin/builtin/patchtransformer/PatchTransformer.go
+++ b/plugin/builtin/patchtransformer/PatchTransformer.go
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ func (p *plugin) applySMPatch(resource, patch *resource.Resource) error {
 	err = filtersutil.ApplyToJSON(patchstrategicmerge.Filter{
 		Patch: node,
 	}, resource)
-	if resource.GetName() != "" {
+	if len(resource.Map()) != 0 {
 		resource.SetName(n)
 		resource.SetNamespace(ns)
 	}