diff --git a/public/app/core/utils/explore.ts b/public/app/core/utils/explore.ts
index 33adbfb5a73..06456fef0ba 100644
--- a/public/app/core/utils/explore.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/utils/explore.ts
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ import {
   ResultGetter,
 } from 'app/types/explore';
 import { LogsDedupStrategy } from 'app/core/logs_model';
-import { getNextQueryLetter } from './query';
+import { getNextRefIdLetter } from './query';
 
 export const DEFAULT_RANGE = {
   from: 'now-6h',
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ export function generateKey(index = 0): string {
 }
 
 export function generateEmptyQuery(queries: DataQuery[], index = 0): { refId: string; key: string } {
-  return { refId: getNextQueryLetter(queries), key: generateKey(index) };
+  return { refId: getNextRefIdLetter(queries), key: generateKey(index) };
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/public/app/core/utils/query.ts b/public/app/core/utils/query.ts
index 3a3fd64fbc8..304dcf1846f 100644
--- a/public/app/core/utils/query.ts
+++ b/public/app/core/utils/query.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import _ from 'lodash';
 import { DataQuery } from '@grafana/ui/';
 
-export const getNextQueryLetter = (queries: DataQuery[]): string => {
+export const getNextRefIdLetter = (queries: DataQuery[]): string => {
   const letters = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
 
   return _.find(letters, refId => {
diff --git a/public/app/features/dashboard/state/PanelModel.ts b/public/app/features/dashboard/state/PanelModel.ts
index db9a9c04e14..5aca2bad462 100644
--- a/public/app/features/dashboard/state/PanelModel.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/dashboard/state/PanelModel.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import _ from 'lodash';
 import { Emitter } from 'app/core/utils/emitter';
 import { DataQuery, TimeSeries, Threshold, ScopedVars, PanelTypeChangedHook } from '@grafana/ui';
 import { TableData } from '@grafana/ui/src';
-import { getNextQueryLetter } from '../../../core/utils/query';
+import { getNextRefIdLetter } from '../../../core/utils/query';
 
 export interface GridPos {
   x: number;
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ export class PanelModel {
     if (this.targets) {
       for (const query of this.targets) {
         if (!query.refId) {
-          query.refId = getNextQueryLetter(this.targets);
+          query.refId = getNextRefIdLetter(this.targets);
         }
       }
     }
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ export class PanelModel {
 
   addQuery(query?: Partial<DataQuery>) {
     query = query || { refId: 'A' };
-    query.refId = getNextQueryLetter(this.targets);
+    query.refId = getNextRefIdLetter(this.targets);
     this.targets.push(query as DataQuery);
   }