diff --git a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HColumnDescriptor.java b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HColumnDescriptor.java
index c0c8dfec3646..db2b4f53627d 100644
--- a/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HColumnDescriptor.java
+++ b/hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HColumnDescriptor.java
@@ -101,6 +101,21 @@ public class HColumnDescriptor implements ColumnFamilyDescriptor, Comparable<HCo
   public static final boolean DEFAULT_NEW_VERSION_BEHAVIOR = ColumnFamilyDescriptorBuilder.DEFAULT_NEW_VERSION_BEHAVIOR;
   protected final ModifyableColumnFamilyDescriptor delegatee;
 
+  /**
+   * Construct a column descriptor specifying only the family name
+   * The other attributes are defaulted.
+   *
+   * @param familyName Column family name. Must be 'printable' -- digit or
+   *   letter -- and may not contain a <code>:</code>
+   * @deprecated As of release 2.0.0, this will be removed in HBase 3.0.0
+   *             (<a href="https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HBASE-18433">HBASE-18433</a>).
+   *             Use {@link ColumnFamilyDescriptorBuilder#of(String)}.
+   */
+  @Deprecated
+  public HColumnDescriptor(final String familyName) {
+    this(Bytes.toBytes(familyName));
+  }
+
   /**
    * Construct a column descriptor specifying only the family name
    * The other attributes are defaulted.