diff --git a/src/gui/image/qicon.cpp b/src/gui/image/qicon.cpp
index 3ebdd6ec23..7911f126a0 100644
--- a/src/gui/image/qicon.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/image/qicon.cpp
@@ -1156,6 +1156,11 @@ QStringList QIcon::themeSearchPaths()
 
     Returns the fallback search paths for icons.
 
+    The fallback search paths are used to look for standalone
+    icon files if the \l{themeName()}{current icon theme}
+    or \l{fallbackIconTheme()}{fallback icon theme} do
+    not provide results for an icon lookup.
+
     The default value will depend on the platform.
 
     \sa setFallbackSearchPaths(), themeSearchPaths()
@@ -1170,6 +1175,11 @@ QStringList QIcon::fallbackSearchPaths()
 
     Sets the fallback search paths for icons to \a paths.
 
+    The fallback search paths are used to look for standalone
+    icon files if the \l{themeName()}{current icon theme}
+    or \l{fallbackIconTheme()}{fallback icon theme} do
+    not provide results for an icon lookup.
+
     \note To add some path without replacing existing ones:
 
     \snippet code/src_gui_image_qicon.cpp 5
diff --git a/src/gui/image/qiconloader.cpp b/src/gui/image/qiconloader.cpp
index 2e3097ce56..6c5621000e 100644
--- a/src/gui/image/qiconloader.cpp
+++ b/src/gui/image/qiconloader.cpp
@@ -585,10 +585,11 @@ QThemeIconInfo QIconLoader::loadIcon(const QString &name) const
     if (!themeName().isEmpty()) {
         QStringList visited;
         iconInfo = findIconHelper(themeName(), name, visited);
-        if (iconInfo.entries.empty())
-            iconInfo = lookupFallbackIcon(name);
     }
 
+    if (iconInfo.entries.empty())
+        iconInfo = lookupFallbackIcon(name);
+
     qCDebug(lcIconLoader) << "Resulting icon entries" << iconInfo.entries;
     return iconInfo;
 }
diff --git a/tests/auto/gui/image/qicon/tst_qicon.cpp b/tests/auto/gui/image/qicon/tst_qicon.cpp
index 4b10449068..4ae908058e 100644
--- a/tests/auto/gui/image/qicon/tst_qicon.cpp
+++ b/tests/auto/gui/image/qicon/tst_qicon.cpp
@@ -727,6 +727,18 @@ void tst_QIcon::fromTheme()
     abIcon = QIcon::fromTheme("address-book-new");
     QVERIFY(abIcon.isNull());
 
+    // Test fallback icon behavior for empty theme names.
+    // Can only reliably test this on systems that don't have a
+    // named system icon theme.
+    QIcon::setThemeName(""); // Reset user-theme
+    if (QIcon::themeName().isEmpty()) {
+        // Test icon from fallback path even when theme name is empty
+        fallbackIcon = QIcon::fromTheme("red");
+        QVERIFY(!fallbackIcon.isNull());
+        QVERIFY(QIcon::hasThemeIcon("red"));
+        QCOMPARE(fallbackIcon.availableSizes().size(), 1);
+    }
+
     // Passing a full path to fromTheme is not very useful, but should work anyway
     QIcon fullPathIcon = QIcon::fromTheme(m_pngImageFileName);
     QVERIFY(!fullPathIcon.isNull());