diff --git a/libsrc/meshing/parallelmesh.cpp b/libsrc/meshing/parallelmesh.cpp
index 43cc1a71..e333e068 100644
--- a/libsrc/meshing/parallelmesh.cpp
+++ b/libsrc/meshing/parallelmesh.cpp
@@ -1228,7 +1228,7 @@ namespace netgen
     auto write_names = [&] (auto & array) {
       for (int k = 0; k < array.Size(); k++) {
 	int s = name_sizes[tot_nn];
-	array[k] = s ? new string(&compiled_names[tot_size], s) : nullptr;
+	array[k] = s ? new string(&compiled_names[tot_size], s) : new string("");
 	tot_nn++;
 	tot_size += s;
       }