diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 18779e2..6cccabf 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -13,6 +13,14 @@ A plugin to connect etsy's statsD to Datadog
 datadogApiKey: "your_api_key" // You can get it from this page: https://app.datadoghq.com/account/settings#api
 datadogPrefix: "your_prefix" // Your metrics will be prefixed by this prefix
 datadogTags: ["your:tag", "another:tag"]  // Your metrics will include these tags
+datadogRemovePrefix: 2 // Number of period delimited prefixes to remove. If you use this option with *datadogPrefix* remove will happen prior to addition.
+```
+### Example:
+
+If the metric name is called **"hosts.foo.bar.count"**, it will be rewritten to **"application.bar.count"**:
+```
+datadogRemovePrefix: 2
+datadogPrefix: "application"
 ```
 
 ## How to enable
diff --git a/lib/datadog.js b/lib/datadog.js
index 65f8a25..61788f4 100644
--- a/lib/datadog.js
+++ b/lib/datadog.js
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ var datadogApiHost;
 var datadogApiKey;
 var datadogStats = {};
 var datadogPrefix;
+var datadogRemovePrefix;
 var datadogTags;
 
 var Datadog = function(api_key, options) {
@@ -192,11 +193,14 @@ var flush_stats = function datadog_post_stats(ts, metrics) {
 };
 
 var get_prefix = function datadog_get_prefix(key) {
+    var new_key = key;
+    if (datadogRemovePrefix !== undefined) {
+        new_key = key.split(".").slice(datadogRemovePrefix).join('.');
+    }
     if (datadogPrefix !== undefined) {
-        return [datadogPrefix, key].join('.');
-    } else {
-        return key;
+        new_key = [datadogPrefix, new_key].join('.');
     }
+    return new_key;
 }
 
 var backend_status = function datadog_status(writeCb) {
@@ -215,6 +219,7 @@ exports.init = function datadog_init(startup_time, config, events, log) {
    datadogApiKey = config.datadogApiKey;
    datadogApiHost = config.datadogApiHost;
    datadogPrefix = config.datadogPrefix;
+   datadogRemovePrefix = config.datadogRemovePrefix;
    datadogTags = config.datadogTags;
 
     if (datadogTags === undefined || datadogTags.constructor !== Array || datadogTags.length < 1) {