diff --git a/Lib/test/test_itertools.py b/Lib/test/test_itertools.py
index 94159b5d0e6..84924843a39 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_itertools.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_itertools.py
@@ -640,6 +640,7 @@ class TestBasicOps(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertNotEqual(len(set(map(id, list(product('abc', 'def'))))), 1)
 
     def test_repeat(self):
+        self.assertEqual(list(repeat(object='a', times=3)), ['a', 'a', 'a'])
         self.assertEqual(lzip(range(3),repeat('a')),
                          [(0, 'a'), (1, 'a'), (2, 'a')])
         self.assertEqual(list(repeat('a', 3)), ['a', 'a', 'a'])
diff --git a/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c b/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
index e2ca9c74b71..48dffe5e6ac 100644
--- a/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/itertoolsmodule.c
@@ -3106,11 +3106,10 @@ repeat_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 	repeatobject *ro;
 	PyObject *element;
 	Py_ssize_t cnt = -1;
-
-	if (type == &repeat_type && !_PyArg_NoKeywords("repeat()", kwds))
-		return NULL;
-
-	if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O|n:repeat", &element, &cnt))
+	static char *kwargs[] = {"object", "times", NULL};
+ 
+ 	if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "O|n:repeat", kwargs, 
+					 &element, &cnt))
 		return NULL;
 
 	if (PyTuple_Size(args) == 2 && cnt < 0)
@@ -3178,8 +3177,8 @@ static PyMethodDef repeat_methods[] = {
 };
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(repeat_doc,
-"repeat(element [,times]) -> create an iterator which returns the element\n\
-for the specified number of times.  If not specified, returns the element\n\
+"repeat(object [,times]) -> create an iterator which returns the object\n\
+for the specified number of times.  If not specified, returns the object\n\
 endlessly.");
 
 static PyTypeObject repeat_type = {