diff --git a/DESIGN.md b/DESIGN.md
index 87d43c86e..2f687c7a6 100644
--- a/DESIGN.md
+++ b/DESIGN.md
@@ -23,9 +23,9 @@ strings, etc. Keep in mind, though, that everything is based on ES Modules! This
 means that the compiler is actually producing a "broken" wasm file of sorts. The
 wasm file emitted by rustc, for example, does not have the interface we would
 like to have. Instead it requires the `wasm-bindgen` tool to postprocess the
-file, generating a `foo.js` and `foo_wasm.wasm` file. The `foo.js` file is the
+file, generating a `foo.js` and `foo_bg.wasm` file. The `foo.js` file is the
 desired interface expressed in JS (classes, types, strings, etc) and the
-`foo_wasm.wasm` module is simply used as an implementation detail (it was
+`foo_bg.wasm` module is simply used as an implementation detail (it was
 lightly modified from the original `foo.wasm` file).
 
 ## Foundation #2: Unintrusive in Rust
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ and what we actually generate looks something like:
 
 ```js
 // foo.js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm';
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg';
 
 let stack = [];
 
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ export function foo(arg0) {
 
 Here we can see a few notable points of action:
 
-* The wasm file was renamed to `foo_wasm.wasm`, and we can see how the JS module
+* The wasm file was renamed to `foo_bg.wasm`, and we can see how the JS module
   generated here is importing from the wasm file.
 * Next we can see our `stack` module variable which is used to push/pop items
   from the stack.
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ module interface is the same as before, but the ownership mechanics are slightly
 different. Let's see the generated JS's slab in action:
 
 ```js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm'; // imports from wasm file
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg'; // imports from wasm file
 
 let slab = [];
 let slab_next = 0;
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@ export function greet(a: string): string;
 To see what's going on, let's take a look at the generated shim
 
 ```js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm';
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg';
 
 function passStringToWasm(arg) {
   const buf = new TextEncoder('utf-8').encode(arg);
@@ -449,7 +449,7 @@ both JS and Rust doing the necessary translation. Let's first see the JS shim in
 action:
 
 ```js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm';
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg';
 
 import { greet } from './greet';
 
@@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ available to JS through generated shims. If we take a look at the generated JS
 code for this we'll see:
 
 ```js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm';
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg';
 
 export class Foo {
   constructor(ptr) {
@@ -710,7 +710,7 @@ let's go through one-by-one:
 With all that in mind, let's take a look at the JS generated.
 
 ```js
-import * as wasm from './foo_wasm';
+import * as wasm from './foo_bg';
 
 import { Bar } from './bar';
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4466bfab0..71e01f25c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ intended interface of the wasm file, notably with rich types like strings,
 classes, etc.
 
 The `wasm-bindgen` tool also emits a few other files needed to implement this
-module. For example `js_hello_world_wasm.wasm` is the original wasm file but
-postprocessed a bit. It's intended that the `js_hello_world_wasm.wasm` file,
+module. For example `js_hello_world_bg.wasm` is the original wasm file but
+postprocessed a bit. It's intended that the `js_hello_world_bg.wasm` file,
 like before, acts like an ES6 module. The `js_hello_world.wasm` file, for
 example, uses `import` to import functionality from the other `*_shims` file
 generated (an internal implementation detail here).
diff --git a/crates/test-support/src/lib.rs b/crates/test-support/src/lib.rs
index a93b59504..ef0cab0e7 100644
--- a/crates/test-support/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/test-support/src/lib.rs
@@ -177,13 +177,13 @@ impl Project {
             .expect("failed to run bindgen");
 
         let mut wasm = Vec::new();
-        File::open(root.join("out_wasm.wasm")).unwrap()
+        File::open(root.join("out_bg.wasm")).unwrap()
             .read_to_end(&mut wasm).unwrap();
         let obj = cli::wasm2es6js::Config::new()
             .base64(true)
             .generate(&wasm)
             .expect("failed to convert wasm to js");
-        File::create(root.join("out_wasm.d.ts")).unwrap()
+        File::create(root.join("out_bg.d.ts")).unwrap()
             .write_all(obj.typescript().as_bytes()).unwrap();
 
 
diff --git a/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/js.rs b/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/js.rs
index db0e3f8db..0ddf19142 100644
--- a/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/js.rs
+++ b/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/js.rs
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ impl<'a> Context<'a> {
 
         let js = format!("
             /* tslint:disable */
-            import * as wasm from './{module_name}_wasm'; // imports from wasm file
+            import * as wasm from './{module_name}_bg'; // imports from wasm file
             {imports}
 
             {globals}
diff --git a/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/lib.rs b/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/lib.rs
index 11dcf604d..24a4f0855 100644
--- a/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/wasm-bindgen-cli-support/src/lib.rs
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ impl Bindgen {
                 .write_all(ts.as_bytes()).unwrap();
         }
 
-        let wasm_path = out_dir.join(format!("{}_wasm", stem)).with_extension("wasm");
+        let wasm_path = out_dir.join(format!("{}_bg", stem)).with_extension("wasm");
         let wasm_bytes = parity_wasm::serialize(module).map_err(|e| {
             format_err!("{:?}", e)
         })?;
diff --git a/examples/hello_world/.gitignore b/examples/hello_world/.gitignore
index f786218f5..f5974ab0b 100644
--- a/examples/hello_world/.gitignore
+++ b/examples/hello_world/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 package-lock.json
 hello_world.js
-hello_world_wasm.js
-hello_world_wasm.wasm
+hello_world_bg.js
+hello_world_bg.wasm
diff --git a/examples/hello_world/chrome/build.sh b/examples/hello_world/chrome/build.sh
index 1190f9739..116250857 100755
--- a/examples/hello_world/chrome/build.sh
+++ b/examples/hello_world/chrome/build.sh
@@ -9,13 +9,13 @@ cargo +nightly run -p wasm-bindgen-cli --bin wasm-bindgen -- \
 
 # To avoid a bug occurring when webpack, wasm, and Chrome are used together, we
 # convert the .wasm module to a .js module that embeds the wasm bytecode. To
-# enable this, delete hello_world_wasm.wasm after building or change
-# hello_world.js to import from hello_world_wasm.js explicitly and uncomment
+# enable this, delete hello_world_bg.wasm after building or change
+# hello_world.js to import from hello_world_bg.js explicitly and uncomment
 # the relevant line in index.js.
 cargo +nightly run -p wasm-bindgen-cli --bin wasm2es6js -- \
-  --base64 -o hello_world_wasm.js hello_world_wasm.wasm
-# wasm2es6js --base64 -o hello_world_wasm.js hello_world_wasm.wasm
-rm hello_world_wasm.wasm
+  --base64 -o hello_world_bg.js hello_world_bg.wasm
+# wasm2es6js --base64 -o hello_world_bg.js hello_world_bg.wasm
+rm hello_world_bg.wasm
 
 # And like the directory above this, from here it's the same.
 npm install
diff --git a/examples/hello_world/chrome/index.js b/examples/hello_world/chrome/index.js
index a5291a920..65549d15e 100644
--- a/examples/hello_world/chrome/index.js
+++ b/examples/hello_world/chrome/index.js
@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@
 // wasm (generated by wasm2es6js) which has a `booted` promise to let us know
 // when it's ready to go.
 import { greet } from './hello_world';
-import { booted } from './hello_world_wasm';
+import { booted } from './hello_world_bg';
 
 booted.then(() => greet("World!"));
diff --git a/examples/hello_world/index.js b/examples/hello_world/index.js
index 7f0e3e972..c83e118e0 100644
--- a/examples/hello_world/index.js
+++ b/examples/hello_world/index.js
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Promise.all([
   // hack around this and need to defer our call until the converted wasm
   // module is asynchronously loaded. Uncomment this line to enable.
   // This hack is not necessary in Firefox.
-  // import("./hello_world_wasm.js").then(wasm => wasm.booted),
+  // import("./hello_world_bg.js").then(wasm => wasm.booted),
 ]).then(([js]) => {
   js.greet("World!");
 });
diff --git a/examples/smorgasboard/.gitignore b/examples/smorgasboard/.gitignore
index 8ac1e8487..1716d5f04 100644
--- a/examples/smorgasboard/.gitignore
+++ b/examples/smorgasboard/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 package-lock.json
 smorgasboard.js
-smorgasboard_wasm.wasm
+smorgasboard_bg.wasm
diff --git a/tests/simple.rs b/tests/simple.rs
index e603b7f38..2b99fbd86 100644
--- a/tests/simple.rs
+++ b/tests/simple.rs
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ fn other_exports() {
             }
         "#)
         .file("test.ts", r#"
-            import * as wasm from "./out_wasm";
+            import * as wasm from "./out_bg";
 
             export function test() {
                 wasm.foo(2);