diff a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/perfData.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/perfData.cpp
--- a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/perfData.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/perfData.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2001, 2018, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2001, 2019, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
  *
  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
  * published by the Free Software Foundation.
@@ -83,11 +83,11 @@
                   : _name(NULL), _v(v), _u(u), _on_c_heap(false), _valuep(NULL) {
 
   const char* prefix = PerfDataManager::ns_to_string(ns);
 
   _name = NEW_C_HEAP_ARRAY(char, strlen(name) + strlen(prefix) + 2, mtInternal);
-  assert(_name != NULL && strlen(name) != 0, "invalid name");
+  assert(strlen(name) != 0, "invalid name");
 
   if (ns == NULL_NS) {
      // No prefix is added to counters with the NULL_NS namespace.
      strcpy(_name, name);
      // set the F_Supported flag based on the counter name prefix.