diff --git a/libpod/container.go b/libpod/container.go
index a6a509ae6c..3fba6c8819 100644
--- a/libpod/container.go
+++ b/libpod/container.go
@@ -741,14 +741,14 @@ func (c *Container) hostname(network bool) string {
 	// containers.conf, use a sanitized version of the container's name
 	// as the hostname.  Since the container name must already match
 	// the set '[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_.-]*', we can just remove any
-	// underscores and limit it to 253 characters to make it a valid
+	// underscores and limit it to 64 characters to make it a valid
 	// hostname.
 	if c.runtime.config.Containers.ContainerNameAsHostName {
 		sanitizedHostname := strings.ReplaceAll(c.Name(), "_", "")
-		if len(sanitizedHostname) <= 253 {
+		if len(sanitizedHostname) <= 64 {
 			return sanitizedHostname
 		}
-		return sanitizedHostname[:253]
+		return sanitizedHostname[:64]
 	}
 
 	// Otherwise use the container's short ID as the hostname.
diff --git a/test/e2e/containers_conf_test.go b/test/e2e/containers_conf_test.go
index fac038e096..98a4cfe669 100644
--- a/test/e2e/containers_conf_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/containers_conf_test.go
@@ -788,7 +788,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Verify podman containers.conf usage", func() {
 	})
 
 	startContainer := func(params ...string) string {
-		args := []string{"create"}
+		args := []string{"run", "-d"}
 		for _, param := range params {
 			if param == "--name" {
 				args = append(args, "--replace")
@@ -888,7 +888,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Verify podman containers.conf usage", func() {
 		name = getContainerConfig(containerID, "{{ .Name }}")
 		// Double check that name actually got set correctly
 		Expect(name).To(Equal(longHostname))
-		// Hostname should be the container name truncated to 253 characters
-		Expect(hostname).To(Equal(name[:253]))
+		// Hostname should be the container name truncated to 64 characters
+		Expect(hostname).To(Equal(name[:64]))
 	})
 })