diff --git a/default.env b/default.env
index 5964ff6..345a61b 100644
--- a/default.env
+++ b/default.env
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ export WDR_DB_NAME=test.db
 
 ## search index configuration
 export WDR_SEARCH_TYPE=elasticsearch
-export WDR_SEARCH_INDEX_BASENAME=woudc-data-registry
 export WDR_SEARCH_URL=http://username:password@localhost:9200/
 
 ## waf configuration
diff --git a/woudc_data_registry/config.py b/woudc_data_registry/config.py
index 89678c4..c5e93e4 100644
--- a/woudc_data_registry/config.py
+++ b/woudc_data_registry/config.py
@@ -63,7 +63,6 @@
 WDR_DB_PASSWORD = os.getenv('WDR_DB_PASSWORD')
 WDR_DB_NAME = os.getenv('WDR_DB_NAME')
 WDR_SEARCH_TYPE = os.getenv('WDR_SEARCH_TYPE', 'elasticsearch')
-WDR_SEARCH_INDEX_BASENAME = os.getenv('WDR_SEARCH_INDEX_BASENAME')
 WDR_SEARCH_URL = os.getenv('WDR_SEARCH_URL')
 WDR_WAF_BASEDIR = os.getenv('WDR_WAF_BASEDIR')
 WDR_WAF_BASEURL = os.getenv('WDR_WAF_BASEURL', 'https://woudc.org/archive')
diff --git a/woudc_data_registry/models.py b/woudc_data_registry/models.py
index 2faab6d..af1cb75 100644
--- a/woudc_data_registry/models.py
+++ b/woudc_data_registry/models.py
@@ -1952,7 +1952,6 @@ def show_config(ctx):
         'WDR_DB_PASSWORD',
         'WDR_DB_NAME',
         'WDR_SEARCH_TYPE',
-        'WDR_SEARCH_INDEX_BASENAME',
         'WDR_SEARCH_URL',
         'WDR_WAF_BASEDIR',
         'WDR_WAF_BASEURL',
diff --git a/woudc_data_registry/search.py b/woudc_data_registry/search.py
index 4559a0d..e6c408f 100644
--- a/woudc_data_registry/search.py
+++ b/woudc_data_registry/search.py
@@ -1062,7 +1062,7 @@ def __init__(self):
 
         self.type = config.WDR_SEARCH_TYPE
         self.url = config.WDR_SEARCH_URL
-        self.index_basename = config.WDR_SEARCH_INDEX_BASENAME
+        self.index_basename = 'woudc-data-registry'
 
         LOGGER.debug('Connecting to Elasticsearch')
 
@@ -1078,10 +1078,7 @@ def generate_index_name(self, index_name):
         :returns: fully qualified index name
         """
 
-        if self.index_basename is not None:
-            return f'{self.index_basename}.{index_name}'
-
-        return index_name
+        return f'{self.index_basename}.{index_name}'
 
     def create(self):
         """create search indexes"""