diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 6c1038a0f1..d68e35a2c5 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -94,24 +94,28 @@ after_script:
 
 matrix:
   include:
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC static (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-system --static"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
 
 
     # we split the system builds as it takes a while to build them all
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC (main-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-user --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
 
 
-    - env:
-        - CONFIG="--disable-user --target-list-exclude=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
+    - name: "[x86] GCC (other-softmmu)"
+      env:
+       - CONFIG="--disable-user --target-list-exclude=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
 
 
     # Just build tools and run minimal unit and softfloat checks
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC check-softfloat (user)"
+      env:
         - BASE_CONFIG="--enable-tools"
         - CONFIG="--disable-user --disable-system"
         - TEST_CMD="make check-unit check-softfloat -j3"
@@ -119,41 +123,48 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # --enable-debug implies --enable-debug-tcg, also runs quite a bit slower
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC debug (main-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-debug --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug"
 
 
     # TCG debug can be run just on its own and is mostly agnostic to user/softmmu distinctions
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC debug (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-debug-tcg --disable-system"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug-tcg"
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC some libs disabled (main-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-linux-aio --disable-cap-ng --disable-attr --disable-brlapi --disable-libusb --disable-replication --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
 
 
     # Module builds are mostly of interest to major distros
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC modules (main-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-modules --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
 
 
     # Alternate coroutines implementations are only really of interest to KVM users
     # However we can't test against KVM on Travis so we can only run unit tests
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] check-unit coroutine=ucontext"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--with-coroutine=ucontext --disable-tcg"
         - TEST_CMD="make check-unit -j3 V=1"
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] check-unit coroutine=sigaltstack"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--with-coroutine=sigaltstack --disable-tcg"
         - TEST_CMD="make check-unit -j3 V=1"
 
 
     # Check we can build docs and tools (out of tree)
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] tools and docs"
+      env:
         - BUILD_DIR="out-of-tree/build/dir" SRC_DIR="../../.."
         - BASE_CONFIG="--enable-tools --enable-docs"
         - CONFIG="--target-list=x86_64-softmmu,aarch64-linux-user"
@@ -167,13 +178,15 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # Test with Clang for compile portability (Travis uses clang-5.0)
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] Clang (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-system"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-clang-default"
       compiler: clang
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] Clang (main-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS} "
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-clang-sanitize"
       compiler: clang
@@ -182,52 +195,60 @@ matrix:
         - ${SRC_DIR}/configure ${CONFIG} --extra-cflags="-fsanitize=undefined -Werror" || { cat config.log && exit 1; }
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] Clang (other-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-user --target-list-exclude=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-clang-default"
       compiler: clang
 
 
     # gprof/gcov are GCC features
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC gprof/gcov"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-gprof --enable-gcov --disable-pie --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
       after_success:
         - ${SRC_DIR}/scripts/travis/coverage-summary.sh
 
 
     # We manually include builds which we disable "make check" for
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC without-default-devices (softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--without-default-devices --disable-user"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
         - TEST_CMD=""
 
 
     # Check the TCG interpreter (TCI)
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC TCI"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-debug-tcg --enable-tcg-interpreter --disable-kvm --disable-containers
             --target-list=alpha-softmmu,arm-softmmu,hppa-softmmu,m68k-softmmu,microblaze-softmmu,moxie-softmmu,ppc-softmmu,s390x-softmmu,x86_64-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD="make check-qtest check-tcg V=1"
 
 
     # We don't need to exercise every backend with every front-end
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC trace log,simple,syslog (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-trace-backends=log,simple,syslog --disable-system"
         - TEST_CMD=""
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC trace ftrace (x86_64-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-trace-backends=ftrace --target-list=x86_64-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD=""
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC trace ust (x86_64-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-trace-backends=ust --target-list=x86_64-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD=""
 
 
     # MacOSX builds - cirrus.yml also tests some MacOS builds including latest Xcode
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] OSX Xcode 10.3"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--target-list=i386-softmmu,ppc-softmmu,ppc64-softmmu,m68k-softmmu,x86_64-softmmu"
       os: osx
       osx_image: xcode10.3
@@ -250,7 +271,8 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # Python builds
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC Python 3.5 (x86_64-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--target-list=x86_64-softmmu"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
       language: python
@@ -258,7 +280,8 @@ matrix:
         - "3.5"
 
 
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC Python 3.6 (x86_64-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--target-list=x86_64-softmmu"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-default"
       language: python
@@ -267,7 +290,8 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # Acceptance (Functional) tests
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC check-acceptance"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--python=/usr/bin/python3 --target-list=x86_64-softmmu,mips-softmmu,mips64el-softmmu,aarch64-softmmu,arm-softmmu,s390x-softmmu,alpha-softmmu,ppc-softmmu,ppc64-softmmu,m68k-softmmu,sparc-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD="make check-acceptance"
       after_script:
@@ -283,7 +307,8 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # Using newer GCC with sanitizers
-    - addons:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC9 with sanitizers (softmmu)"
+      addons:
         apt:
           update: true
           sources:
@@ -331,7 +356,8 @@ matrix:
 
 
     # Run check-tcg against linux-user
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC check-tcg (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-system --enable-debug-tcg"
         - TEST_CMD="make -j3 check-tcg V=1"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug-tcg"
@@ -339,26 +365,30 @@ matrix:
 
     # Run check-tcg against linux-user (with plugins)
     # we skip sparc64-linux-user until it has been fixed somewhat
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC plugins check-tcg (user)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--disable-system --enable-plugins --enable-debug-tcg --target-list-exclude=sparc64-linux-user"
         - TEST_CMD="make -j3 check-tcg V=1"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug-tcg"
 
 
     # Run check-tcg against softmmu targets
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC check-tcg (some-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-debug-tcg --target-list=xtensa-softmmu,arm-softmmu,aarch64-softmmu,alpha-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD="make -j3 check-tcg V=1"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug-tcg"
 
 
     # Run check-tcg against softmmu targets (with plugins)
-    - env:
+    - name: "[x86] GCC plugins check-tcg (some-softmmu)"
+      env:
         - CONFIG="--enable-plugins --enable-debug-tcg --target-list=xtensa-softmmu,arm-softmmu,aarch64-softmmu,alpha-softmmu"
         - TEST_CMD="make -j3 check-tcg V=1"
         - CACHE_NAME="${TRAVIS_BRANCH}-linux-gcc-debug-tcg"
 
-    - arch: arm64
+    - name: "[aarch64] GCC check-tcg"
+      arch: arm64
       dist: xenial
       addons:
         apt_packages:
@@ -387,7 +417,8 @@ matrix:
         - TEST_CMD="make check check-tcg V=1"
         - CONFIG="--disable-containers --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS}"
 
-    - arch: ppc64le
+    - name: "[ppc64] GCC check-tcg"
+      arch: ppc64le
       dist: xenial
       addons:
         apt_packages:
@@ -416,7 +447,8 @@ matrix:
         - TEST_CMD="make check check-tcg V=1"
         - CONFIG="--disable-containers --target-list=${MAIN_SOFTMMU_TARGETS},ppc64le-linux-user"
 
-    - arch: s390x
+    - name: "[s390x] GCC check-tcg"
+      arch: s390x
       dist: bionic
       addons:
         apt_packages:
@@ -448,7 +480,8 @@ matrix:
     # Release builds
     # The make-release script expect a QEMU version, so our tag must start with a 'v'.
     # This is the case when release candidate tags are created.
-    - if: tag IS present AND tag =~ /^v\d+\.\d+(\.\d+)?(-\S*)?$/
+    - name: "Release tarball"
+      if: tag IS present AND tag =~ /^v\d+\.\d+(\.\d+)?(-\S*)?$/
       env:
         # We want to build from the release tarball
         - BUILD_DIR="release/build/dir" SRC_DIR="../../.."
