diff --git a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/ColumnSignature.java b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/ColumnSignature.java
index 62553ddaf4e9..2ea9f9606062 100644
--- a/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/ColumnSignature.java
+++ b/processing/src/main/java/org/apache/druid/segment/column/ColumnSignature.java
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class ColumnSignature
 
     // Name must be nonnull, but type can be null (if the type is unknown)
     if (name == null || name.isEmpty()) {
-      throw new IAE(name, "Column name must be non-empty");
+      throw new IAE("Column name must be provided and non-empty");
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/sql/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/sql/calcite/CalciteInsertDmlTest.java b/sql/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/sql/calcite/CalciteInsertDmlTest.java
index 71672ae8d510..10d0f4096d8f 100644
--- a/sql/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/sql/calcite/CalciteInsertDmlTest.java
+++ b/sql/src/test/java/org/apache/druid/sql/calcite/CalciteInsertDmlTest.java
@@ -1435,7 +1435,7 @@ public void testErrorWithUnableToConstructColumnSignatureWithExtern()
                                 "general"
                             )
                                 .expectMessageContains(
-                                    "Cannot construct instance of `org.apache.druid.segment.column.ColumnSignature`, problem: `java.lang.NullPointerException`\n"
+                                    "Cannot construct instance of `org.apache.druid.segment.column.ColumnSignature`, problem: Column name must be provided and non-empty"
                                 )
                         )
                         .verify();