diff --git a/frontends/verific/verific.cc b/frontends/verific/verific.cc
index bc61c9c82..5d93954a7 100644
--- a/frontends/verific/verific.cc
+++ b/frontends/verific/verific.cc
@@ -2468,6 +2468,7 @@ std::string verific_import(Design *design, const std::map<std::string,std::strin
 
 	Netlist *nl;
 	int i;
+	std::string cell_name = top;
 
 	FOREACH_ARRAY_ITEM(netlists, i, nl) {
 		if (!nl) continue;
@@ -2475,7 +2476,9 @@ std::string verific_import(Design *design, const std::map<std::string,std::strin
 			continue;
 		nl->AddAtt(new Att(" \\top", NULL));
 		nl_todo.emplace(nl->CellBaseName(), nl);
+		cell_name = nl->Owner()->Name();
 	}
+	if (top.empty()) cell_name = top;
 
 	delete netlists;
 
@@ -2495,7 +2498,7 @@ std::string verific_import(Design *design, const std::map<std::string,std::strin
 		if (nl_done.count(it->first) == 0) {
 			VerificImporter importer(false, false, false, false, false, false, false);
 			nl_done[it->first] = it->second;
-			importer.import_netlist(design, nl, nl_todo, nl->Owner()->Name() == top);
+			importer.import_netlist(design, nl, nl_todo, nl->Owner()->Name() == cell_name);
 		}
 		nl_todo.erase(it);
 	}