diff --git a/libavcodec/avcodec.h b/libavcodec/avcodec.h
index ce03cabde4..f00eb37e42 100644
--- a/libavcodec/avcodec.h
+++ b/libavcodec/avcodec.h
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 #include "libavutil/avutil.h"
 
 #define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MAJOR 51
-#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MINOR 54
+#define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MINOR 55
 #define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MICRO  0
 
 #define LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_INT  AV_VERSION_INT(LIBAVCODEC_VERSION_MAJOR, \
@@ -2240,6 +2240,7 @@ typedef struct AVCodec {
     void (*flush)(AVCodecContext *);
     const AVRational *supported_framerates; ///array of supported framerates, or NULL if any, array is terminated by {0,0}
     const enum PixelFormat *pix_fmts;       ///array of supported pixel formats, or NULL if unknown, array is terminanted by -1
+    const char *long_name;                  ///< descriptive name for the codec, meant to be more human readable than \p name
 } AVCodec;
 
 /**