diff --git a/meta/conf/machine/include/soc-family.inc b/meta/conf/machine/include/soc-family.inc
index 0251da079c..1ff0899812 100644
--- a/meta/conf/machine/include/soc-family.inc
+++ b/meta/conf/machine/include/soc-family.inc
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 # Add SOC_FAMILY to machine overrides so we get access to e.g. 'omap3' and 'ti335x'
+SOC_FAMILY ??= ""
 MACHINEOVERRIDES =. "${@['', '${SOC_FAMILY}:']['${SOC_FAMILY}' != '']}"