diff --git a/bigframes/core/block_transforms.py b/bigframes/core/block_transforms.py
index ce0fdd219a..df84f70859 100644
--- a/bigframes/core/block_transforms.py
+++ b/bigframes/core/block_transforms.py
@@ -353,7 +353,9 @@ def value_counts(
                 )
             ]
         )
-    return block.select_column(count_id).with_column_labels(["count"])
+    return block.select_column(count_id).with_column_labels(
+        ["proportion" if normalize else "count"]
+    )
 
 
 def pct_change(block: blocks.Block, periods: int = 1) -> blocks.Block:
diff --git a/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py b/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
index 9318a5d9d2..45490e00ca 100644
--- a/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
+++ b/tests/system/small/test_dataframe.py
@@ -3453,6 +3453,8 @@ def test_df_to_orc(scalars_df_index, scalars_pandas_df_index):
     ],
 )
 def test_df_value_counts(scalars_dfs, subset, normalize, ascending, dropna):
+    if pd.__version__.startswith("1."):
+        pytest.skip("pandas 1.x produces different column labels.")
     scalars_df, scalars_pandas_df = scalars_dfs
 
     bf_result = (
@@ -3464,10 +3466,6 @@ def test_df_value_counts(scalars_dfs, subset, normalize, ascending, dropna):
         subset, normalize=normalize, ascending=ascending, dropna=dropna
     )
 
-    # Older pandas version may not have these values, bigframes tries to emulate 2.0+
-    pd_result.name = "count"
-    pd_result.index.names = bf_result.index.names
-
     pd.testing.assert_series_equal(
         bf_result, pd_result, check_dtype=False, check_index_type=False
     )
diff --git a/tests/system/small/test_series.py b/tests/system/small/test_series.py
index d9fc23fad0..92a7b6f099 100644
--- a/tests/system/small/test_series.py
+++ b/tests/system/small/test_series.py
@@ -1940,16 +1940,14 @@ def test_cummax_int(scalars_df_index, scalars_pandas_df_index):
 
 
 def test_value_counts(scalars_dfs):
+    if pd.__version__.startswith("1."):
+        pytest.skip("pandas 1.x produces different column labels.")
     scalars_df, scalars_pandas_df = scalars_dfs
     col_name = "int64_too"
 
     bf_result = scalars_df[col_name].value_counts().to_pandas()
     pd_result = scalars_pandas_df[col_name].value_counts()
 
-    # Older pandas version may not have these values, bigframes tries to emulate 2.0+
-    pd_result.name = "count"
-    pd_result.index.name = col_name
-
     pd.testing.assert_series_equal(
         bf_result,
         pd_result,
@@ -1957,6 +1955,8 @@ def test_value_counts(scalars_dfs):
 
 
 def test_value_counts_w_cut(scalars_dfs):
+    if pd.__version__.startswith("1."):
+        pytest.skip("value_counts results different in pandas 1.x.")
     scalars_df, scalars_pandas_df = scalars_dfs
     col_name = "int64_col"
 
@@ -1965,9 +1965,6 @@ def test_value_counts_w_cut(scalars_dfs):
 
     bf_result = bf_cut.value_counts().to_pandas()
     pd_result = pd_cut.value_counts()
-    # Older pandas version may not have these values, bigframes tries to emulate 2.0+
-    pd_result.name = "count"
-    pd_result.index.name = col_name
     pd_result.index = pd_result.index.astype(pd.Int64Dtype())
 
     pd.testing.assert_series_equal(