diff --git a/share/man/man9/nv.9 b/share/man/man9/nv.9
index 8c4bb2095c1..e3d70801117 100644
--- a/share/man/man9/nv.9
+++ b/share/man/man9/nv.9
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 .\"
 .\" $FreeBSD$
 .\"
-.Dd July 4, 2015
+.Dd Aug 11, 2015
 .Dt NV 9
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -410,6 +410,16 @@ The
 argument can be NULL.
 Elements may not be removed from the nvlist while traversing it.
 The nvlist must not be in error state.
+Note that
+.Fn nvlist_next
+will handle
+.Va cookiep
+being set to
+.Dv NULL .
+In this case first element is returned or
+.Dv NULL
+if nvlist is empty.
+This behavior simplifies removing the first element from the list.
 .Pp
 The
 .Fn nvlist_exists
diff --git a/sys/contrib/libnv/nvlist.c b/sys/contrib/libnv/nvlist.c
index 3138001eab4..cdb54d28f48 100644
--- a/sys/contrib/libnv/nvlist.c
+++ b/sys/contrib/libnv/nvlist.c
@@ -1026,9 +1026,8 @@ nvlist_next(const nvlist_t *nvl, int *typep, void **cookiep)
 	nvpair_t *nvp;
 
 	NVLIST_ASSERT(nvl);
-	PJDLOG_ASSERT(cookiep != NULL);
 
-	if (*cookiep == NULL)
+	if (cookiep == NULL || *cookiep == NULL)
 		nvp = nvlist_first_nvpair(nvl);
 	else
 		nvp = nvlist_next_nvpair(nvl, *cookiep);
@@ -1036,7 +1035,8 @@ nvlist_next(const nvlist_t *nvl, int *typep, void **cookiep)
 		return (NULL);
 	if (typep != NULL)
 		*typep = nvpair_type(nvp);
-	*cookiep = nvp;
+	if (cookiep != NULL)
+		*cookiep = nvp;
 	return (nvpair_name(nvp));
 }