diff --git a/skimage/exposure/__init__.py b/skimage/exposure/__init__.py
index d495686a..ae75c982 100644
--- a/skimage/exposure/__init__.py
+++ b/skimage/exposure/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-from .exposure import histogram, equalize, cumulative_distribution
-from .exposure import rescale_intensity
-from ._adapthist import adapthist
+from .exposure import histogram, equalize, equalize_hist
+from .exposure import rescale_intensity, cumulative_distribution
+from ._adapthist import equalize_adapthist
diff --git a/skimage/exposure/_adapthist.py b/skimage/exposure/_adapthist.py
index 57541de1..30d92d48 100644
--- a/skimage/exposure/_adapthist.py
+++ b/skimage/exposure/_adapthist.py
@@ -33,7 +33,8 @@ MAX_REG_Y = 16  # max. # contextual regions in y-direction */
 NR_OF_GREY = 1 << 14  # number of grayscale levels to use in CLAHE algorithm
 
 
-def adapthist(image, ntiles_x=8, ntiles_y=8, clip_limit=0.01, nbins=256):
+def equalize_adapthist(image, ntiles_x=8, ntiles_y=8, clip_limit=0.01,
+                       nbins=256):
     '''Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization
 
     Parameters
diff --git a/skimage/exposure/exposure.py b/skimage/exposure/exposure.py
index 6ef7ff66..465b9182 100644
--- a/skimage/exposure/exposure.py
+++ b/skimage/exposure/exposure.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from skimage import img_as_float
 from skimage.util.dtype import dtype_range
 import skimage.color as color
 from skimage.util.dtype import convert
+from skimage._shared.utils import deprecated
 
 
 __all__ = ['histogram', 'cumulative_distribution', 'equalize',
@@ -78,7 +79,12 @@ def cumulative_distribution(image, nbins=256):
     return img_cdf, bin_centers
 
 
+@deprecated('equalize_hist')
 def equalize(image, nbins=256):
+    equalize_hist(image, nbins)
+
+
+def equalize_hist(image, nbins=256):
     """Return image after histogram equalization.
 
     Parameters