diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index d52bb01bde435b86e87b6690c4256c01bbd40d3a..75311688e90c038afb5840eca9d8421c1ba1e762 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1760,7 +1760,11 @@ else
     found_iconv = true
   endif
   if not found_iconv and ['auto', 'external'].contains(iconv_opt) and cc.has_header_symbol('iconv.h', 'iconv_open')
-    libiconv = [cc.find_library('iconv')]
+    dirs = []
+    if host_system == 'freebsd'
+      dirs += '/usr/local/lib'
+    endif
+    libiconv = [cc.find_library('iconv', dirs: dirs)]
     found_iconv = true
   endif
 
@@ -1989,9 +1993,9 @@ endif
 
 glib_conf.set('HAVE_PROC_SELF_CMDLINE', have_proc_self_cmdline)
 
-python = import('python').find_installation('python3')
 # used for '#!/usr/bin/env <name>'
-python_name = 'python3'
+python_name = get_option('python_name')
+python = import('python').find_installation(python_name)
 
 python_version = python.language_version()
 python_version_req = '>=3.4'
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 2c831e37e31a8dca3e97c9ebccbd1a02946e213f..5229f5dd4c7411ab054be4af5f45ada828991b9c 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+option('python_name',
+       type : 'string',
+       value : 'python3',
+       description : 'Python name, for FreeBSD may be python3.6')
+
 option('runtime_libdir',
        type : 'string',
        value : '',