diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index a359154836..913f49bb5d 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -340,4 +340,10 @@ option('dictionaries-hyphen-dir',
   type : 'string',
   value : '/usr/share/hyphen/',
   description : 'Put the path to hyphen dictionaries directory'
-)
\ No newline at end of file
+)
+
+option('elementary-base-dir',
+  type : 'string',
+  value : '.elementary',
+  description : 'Put the name of a base directory for elementary data'
+)
diff --git a/src/lib/elementary/meson.build b/src/lib/elementary/meson.build
index 5e92402c06..b88a3ac52b 100644
--- a/src/lib/elementary/meson.build
+++ b/src/lib/elementary/meson.build
@@ -916,7 +916,7 @@ elm_options = configuration_data()
 
 config_h.set_quoted('ELM_TOP_BUILD_DIR', meson.build_root())
 config_h.set_quoted('MODULES_PATH', join_paths(dir_lib, 'modules'))
-config_h.set_quoted('ELEMENTARY_BASE_DIR', '.elementary')
+config_h.set_quoted('ELEMENTARY_BASE_DIR', get_option('elementary-base-dir'))
 config_h.set_quoted('ICON_DIR', join_paths(dir_lib, 'icons'))
 
 if sys_windows == false