diff --git a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
index ab9de023e2b305524cde3942a25d0d01aa50c02d..f87399698d29d62416fa7c0e62980a930e23fc13 100644
--- a/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
+++ b/sql/catalyst/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/analysis/Analyzer.scala
@@ -383,7 +383,7 @@ class Analyzer(
           } else {
             val suffix = aggregate match {
               case n: NamedExpression => n.name
-              case _ => aggregate.sql
+              case _ => toPrettySQL(aggregate)
             }
             value + "_" + suffix
           }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameAggregateSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameAggregateSuite.scala
index 7853b22fec0d9b77c4912ab2318b4a8ce9aad015..e7079120bb7dfe463863450729cde7c14d136231 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameAggregateSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrameAggregateSuite.scala
@@ -530,4 +530,12 @@ class DataFrameAggregateSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext {
       limit2Df.groupBy("id").count().select($"id"),
       limit2Df.select($"id"))
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-17237 remove backticks in a pivot result schema") {
+    val df = Seq((2, 3, 4), (3, 4, 5)).toDF("a", "x", "y")
+    checkAnswer(
+      df.groupBy("a").pivot("x").agg(count("y"), avg("y")).na.fill(0),
+      Seq(Row(3, 0, 0.0, 1, 5.0), Row(2, 1, 4.0, 0, 0.0))
+    )
+  }
 }
diff --git a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFramePivotSuite.scala b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFramePivotSuite.scala
index a8d854ccbc94362aed2cae64006cecc814b17f8d..51ffe34172714271eccd5fb208b25c3699610b58 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFramePivotSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/DataFramePivotSuite.scala
@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ class DataFramePivotSuite extends QueryTest with SharedSQLContext{
 
   test("pivot preserves aliases if given") {
     assertResult(
-      Array("year", "dotNET_foo", "dotNET_avg(`earnings`)", "Java_foo", "Java_avg(`earnings`)")
+      Array("year", "dotNET_foo", "dotNET_avg(earnings)", "Java_foo", "Java_avg(earnings)")
     )(
       courseSales.groupBy($"year")
         .pivot("course", Seq("dotNET", "Java"))