diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/percolate/PercolateSourceBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/percolate/PercolateSourceBuilder.java
index 9d52c96f969..d687d48fb0c 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/percolate/PercolateSourceBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/percolate/PercolateSourceBuilder.java
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import org.elasticsearch.index.query.QueryBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregatorBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.pipeline.PipelineAggregatorBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.builder.SearchSourceBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.highlight.HighlightBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.sort.ScoreSortBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.sort.SortBuilder;
@@ -170,7 +171,7 @@ public class PercolateSourceBuilder extends ToXContentToBytes {
             builder.field("track_scores", trackScores);
         }
         if (highlightBuilder != null) {
-            highlightBuilder.toXContent(builder, params);
+            builder.field(SearchSourceBuilder.HIGHLIGHT_FIELD.getPreferredName(), highlightBuilder);
         }
         if (aggregationBuilders != null || pipelineAggregationBuilders != null) {
             builder.field("aggregations");
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/metrics/tophits/TopHitsAggregatorBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/metrics/tophits/TopHitsAggregatorBuilder.java
index a15a61eaae2..9f5f3e443ef 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/metrics/tophits/TopHitsAggregatorBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/metrics/tophits/TopHitsAggregatorBuilder.java
@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentType;
 import org.elasticsearch.script.Script;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregationInitializationException;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregatorBuilder;
-import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregatorFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregatorFactories.Builder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregatorFactory;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.support.AggregationContext;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.builder.SearchSourceBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.builder.SearchSourceBuilder.ScriptField;
@@ -520,7 +520,7 @@ public class TopHitsAggregatorBuilder extends AggregatorBuilder<TopHitsAggregato
             builder.field(SearchSourceBuilder.TRACK_SCORES_FIELD.getPreferredName(), true);
         }
         if (highlightBuilder != null) {
-            this.highlightBuilder.toXContent(builder, params);
+            builder.field(SearchSourceBuilder.HIGHLIGHT_FIELD.getPreferredName(), highlightBuilder);
         }
         builder.endObject();
         return builder;
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
index 8827c3cf43f..e1a9e9fe67b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/builder/SearchSourceBuilder.java
@@ -1038,7 +1038,7 @@ public final class SearchSourceBuilder extends ToXContentToBytes implements Writ
             }
 
         if (highlightBuilder != null) {
-            this.highlightBuilder.toXContent(builder, params);
+            builder.field(HIGHLIGHT_FIELD.getPreferredName(), highlightBuilder);
         }
 
         if (innerHitsBuilder != null) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilder.java b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilder.java
index 325541844ca..1a3b1b46cfc 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilder.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilder.java
@@ -58,8 +58,6 @@ public class HighlightBuilder extends AbstractHighlighterBuilder<HighlightBuilde
 
     public static final HighlightBuilder PROTOTYPE = new HighlightBuilder();
 
-    public static final String HIGHLIGHT_ELEMENT_NAME = "highlight";
-
     /** default for whether to highlight fields based on the source even if stored separately */
     public static final boolean DEFAULT_FORCE_SOURCE = false;
     /** default for whether a field should be highlighted only if a query matches that field */
@@ -226,7 +224,7 @@ public class HighlightBuilder extends AbstractHighlighterBuilder<HighlightBuilde
 
     @Override
     public XContentBuilder toXContent(XContentBuilder builder, Params params) throws IOException {
-        builder.startObject(HIGHLIGHT_ELEMENT_NAME);
+        builder.startObject();
         innerXContent(builder);
         builder.endObject();
         return builder;
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilderTests.java b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilderTests.java
index 6d165f2d37c..b8f775639f9 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilderTests.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/highlight/HighlightBuilderTests.java
@@ -142,9 +142,7 @@ public class HighlightBuilderTests extends ESTestCase {
             if (randomBoolean()) {
                 builder.prettyPrint();
             }
-            builder.startObject();
-            highlightBuilder.innerXContent(builder);
-            builder.endObject();
+            highlightBuilder.toXContent(builder, ToXContent.EMPTY_PARAMS);
 
             XContentParser parser = XContentHelper.createParser(builder.bytes());
             context.reset(parser);