diff --git a/edb/server/dbview/dbview.pyx b/edb/server/dbview/dbview.pyx
index e667be68083..669ecf9e21b 100644
--- a/edb/server/dbview/dbview.pyx
+++ b/edb/server/dbview/dbview.pyx
@@ -1328,7 +1328,7 @@ cdef class DatabaseIndex:
             return self._dbs[dbname]
         except KeyError:
             raise errors.UnknownDatabaseError(
-                f'database {dbname!r} does not exist')
+                f'database branch {dbname!r} does not exist')
 
     def maybe_get_db(self, dbname):
         return self._dbs.get(dbname)