diff --git a/podman_compose.py b/podman_compose.py
index b8b482b..525e179 100755
--- a/podman_compose.py
+++ b/podman_compose.py
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ def fix_mount_dict(compose, mount_dict, proj_name, srv_name):
         vols = compose.vols
         source = mount_dict.get("source", None)
         vol = (vols.get(source, None) or {}) if source else {}
-        name = vol.get('name', None)
+        name = vol.get('name', None) 
         mount_dict["_vol"] = vol
         # handle anonymouse or implied volume
         if not source:
@@ -149,7 +149,9 @@ def fix_mount_dict(compose, mount_dict, proj_name, srv_name):
                 hashlib.sha256(mount_dict["target"].encode("utf-8")).hexdigest(),
             ])
         elif not name:
-            vol["name"] = f"{proj_name}_{source}"
+            external = vol.get("external", None)
+            ext_name = external.get("name", None) if isinstance(external, dict) else None
+            vol["name"] =  ext_name if ext_name else f"{proj_name}_{source}"
     return mount_dict
 
 # docker and docker-compose support subset of bash variable substitution
@@ -397,12 +399,22 @@ def assert_volume(compose, mount_dict):
     if mount_dict["type"] != "volume" or not vol or vol.get("external", None) or not vol.get("name", None): return
     proj_name = compose.project_name
     vol_name = vol["name"]
+    print(mount_dict, vol)
     print("podman volume inspect {vol_name} || podman volume create {vol_name}".format(vol_name=vol_name))
     # TODO: might move to using "volume list"
     # podman volume list --format '{{.Name}}\t{{.MountPoint}}' -f 'label=io.podman.compose.project=HERE'
     try: out = compose.podman.output([], "volume", ["inspect", vol_name]).decode('utf-8')
     except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
-        compose.podman.output([], "volume", ["create", "--label", "io.podman.compose.project={}".format(proj_name), "--label", "com.docker.compose.project={}".format(proj_name), vol_name])
+        labels = vol.get("labels", None) or []
+        args = [
+            "create",
+            "--label", "io.podman.compose.project={}".format(proj_name),
+            "--label", "com.docker.compose.project={}".format(proj_name),
+        ]
+        for item in norm_as_list(labels):
+            args.extend(["--label", item])
+        args.append(vol_name)
+        compose.podman.output([], "volume", args)
         out = compose.podman.output([], "volume", ["inspect", vol_name]).decode('utf-8')
 
 def mount_desc_to_mount_args(compose, mount_desc, srv_name, cnt_name):
diff --git a/tests/vol/README.md b/tests/vol/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8594f0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/vol/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# to test create the two external volumes
+
+```
+podman volume create my-app-data
+podman volume create actual-name-of-volume
+podman-compose up 
+```
+
diff --git a/tests/vol/docker-compose.yaml b/tests/vol/docker-compose.yaml
index aed1e67..34222cb 100644
--- a/tests/vol/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/tests/vol/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ services:
       working_dir: /var/www/html
       volumes:
         - myvol2:/var/www/html
+        - data:/var/www/html_data
+        - data2:/var/www/html_data2
+        - data3:/var/www/html_data3
 
 volumes:
   myvol2:
@@ -38,3 +41,6 @@ volumes:
   data2:
     external:
       name: actual-name-of-volume
+  data3:
+    name: my-app-data3
+