diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
index 00610b20802..5a94a83534d 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/IndexSettings.java
@@ -240,7 +240,8 @@ public final class IndexSettings {
     /**
      * Specifies if the index should use soft-delete instead of hard-delete for update/delete operations.
      */
-    public static final Setting<Boolean> INDEX_SOFT_DELETES_SETTING = Setting.boolSetting("index.soft_deletes", true, Property.IndexScope);
+    public static final Setting<Boolean> INDEX_SOFT_DELETES_SETTING =
+        Setting.boolSetting("index.soft_deletes.enabled", true, Property.IndexScope);
 
     /**
      * Controls how many soft-deleted documents will be kept around before being merged away. Keeping more deleted