diff --git a/cmd/minikube/cmd/pause.go b/cmd/minikube/cmd/pause.go
index d11a3d83e3..4fd7ceefe2 100644
--- a/cmd/minikube/cmd/pause.go
+++ b/cmd/minikube/cmd/pause.go
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func runPause(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 }
 
 func init() {
-	pauseCmd.Flags().StringSliceVarP(&namespaces, "--namespaces", "n", constants.DefaultNamespaces, "namespaces to pause")
+	pauseCmd.Flags().StringSliceVarP(&namespaces, "namespaces", "n", constants.DefaultNamespaces, "namespaces to pause")
 	pauseCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&allNamespaces, "all-namespaces", "A", false, "If set, pause all namespaces")
 	pauseCmd.Flags().StringVarP(&outputFormat, "output", "o", "text", "Format to print stdout in. Options include: [text,json]")
 }