diff --git a/lib/storage/index.js b/lib/storage/index.js
index 1959a28d7ad..819fa24c5b6 100644
--- a/lib/storage/index.js
+++ b/lib/storage/index.js
@@ -146,6 +146,9 @@ ReadStream.prototype.pipe = function(dest, opts) {
  * create a bucket.
  */
 function Bucket(opts) {
+  if (!opts.bucketName) {
+    throw Error('A bucket name is needed to use Google Cloud Storage');
+  }
   this.bucketName = opts.bucketName;
   this.conn = new conn.Connection({
     keyFilename: opts.keyFilename,
diff --git a/test/storage.js b/test/storage.js
index bb0da080718..8115237403e 100644
--- a/test/storage.js
+++ b/test/storage.js
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ function createBucket() {
 
 describe('Bucket', function() {
 
+  it('should throw if a bucket name is not passed', function() {
+    assert.throws(function() { var bucket = new storage.Bucket(); }, Error);
+  })
+
   it('should list without a query', function(done) {
     var bucket = createBucket();
     bucket.makeReq = function(method, path, q, body, callback) {