diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 5d2e4a51e..1adf095ff 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ Collate:
     'categories.R'
     'category.R'
     'change-category-id.R'
+    'clean-array.R'
     'combine-categories.R'
     'compare-categories.R'
     'compare-datasets.R'
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 5bd276fdb..4b0062a91 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ export(categoriesFromLevels)
 export(cd)
 export(changeCategoryID)
 export(checkForNewVersion)
+export(cleanImportedArray)
 export(cleanseBatches)
 export(collapseCategories)
 export(combine)
diff --git a/R/add-variable.R b/R/add-variable.R
index 03bf1c9fb..648a374fe 100644
--- a/R/add-variable.R
+++ b/R/add-variable.R
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ validateVarDefRows <- function(vardef, numrows) {
 POSTNewVariable <- function(catalog_url, variable) {
     do.POST <- function(x) crPOST(catalog_url, body = toJSON(x, digits = 15))
 
+    is_binddef <- FALSE
     if (!any(c("expr", "derivation") %in% names(variable))) {
         ## If deriving a variable, skip this and go straight to POSTing
         if (variable$type %in% c("multiple_response", "categorical_array")) {
@@ -102,6 +103,12 @@ POSTNewVariable <- function(catalog_url, variable) {
             }
             is_binddef <- is.character(variable$subvariables) &&
                 !("categories" %in% names(variable))
+            if (is_binddef) {
+                # Pop the magic flag off
+                # TODO: allow setting this magic flag in makeArray()
+                do_post_bind_magic <- variable$autonames %||% FALSE
+                variable$autonames <- NULL
+            }
             is_arraydef <- is_catvardef(variable) &&
                 !any(vapply(variable$subvariables, is_catvardef, logical(1)))
             case3 <- !(is_binddef | is_arraydef)
@@ -131,6 +138,11 @@ POSTNewVariable <- function(catalog_url, variable) {
         }
     }
     out <- do.POST(variable)
+    if (is_binddef && do_post_bind_magic) {
+        # Look for common variable name stems and clean that
+        var <- VariableEntity(crGET(out))
+        cleanImportedArray(var)
+    }
     invisible(out)
 }
 
diff --git a/R/clean-array.R b/R/clean-array.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..99e5ec36c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/clean-array.R
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+#' Clean up an array variable imported from a lossy file format
+#'
+#' Array and multiple-response variables coming in from SPSS or other file
+#' formats generally need some work to reconstruct the "right" metadata because
+#' they have to shove both parent and subvariable metadata into the "varlabels"
+#' of the subvariables. This often follows a pattern of having varlabels with a
+#' prefix containing the parent question wording (description) and a suffix that
+#' is the actual response label.
+#'
+#' This function detects this prefix and reconstructs what may have been the
+#' original array definition.
+#'
+#' @param variable An array Variable
+#' @param min.prefix.length Integer: how many characters long does the common
+#' string need to be in order to consider it significant enough to use? Default
+#' is 20.
+#' @return `variable` with edits pushed to the API. A common prefix on
+#' subvariable names is extracted and set as the variable's description.
+#' @export
+cleanImportedArray <- function (variable, min.prefix.length=20) {
+    if (length(subvariables(variable)) > 1) {
+        prefix <- findCommonPrefix(names(subvariables(variable)))
+        # If length of the common stem is enough, extract it,
+        # remove it from the subvar names,
+        # remove trailing whitespace/punctuation,
+        # and set it as variable description.
+        if (nchar(prefix) >= min.prefix.length) {
+            # Use wildcard regexp with length just in case there are special chars in prefix.
+            # We already know that the prefix matches.
+            re <- paste0("^.{", nchar(prefix), "}")
+            names(subvariables(variable)) <- sub(re, "", names(subvariables(variable)))
+            # Now, remove whitespace and some punctuation from end of prefix, but
+            # don't remove a question mark or other reasonable punctuation
+            prefix <- sub("[[:space:]\\-\\:;|]*$", "", prefix)
+            description(variable) <- prefix
+        }
+    }
+    return(variable)
+}
+
+findCommonPrefix <- function (x) {
+    # Find the shortest one and start with that
+    step_size <- prefix_length <- min(nchar(x))
+    out <- ""
+    while (step_size > 0 && prefix_length > 0) {
+        # Bisect to find the common stem
+        step_size <- round(step_size / 2)
+        stems <- unique(substr(x, 1, prefix_length))
+        if (length(stems) == 1) {
+            # Keep this one
+            out <- stems
+            # Try longer
+            prefix_length <- prefix_length + step_size
+        } else {
+            # Try shorter
+            prefix_length <- prefix_length - step_size
+        }
+    }
+    return(out)
+}
diff --git a/inst/WORDLIST b/inst/WORDLIST
index b631ce493..1a374b1c3 100644
--- a/inst/WORDLIST
+++ b/inst/WORDLIST
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ JSON
 JSONing
 Jupyter
 libcurl
+lossy
 magrittr
 makeWeight
 MemberCatalog
@@ -136,6 +137,7 @@ POSIXt
 POSTed
 POSTing
 POSTs
+powerpoint
 PPA
 pre
 programmatically
diff --git a/man/cleanImportedArray.Rd b/man/cleanImportedArray.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4b9b4aacb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/cleanImportedArray.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/clean-array.R
+\name{cleanImportedArray}
+\alias{cleanImportedArray}
+\title{Clean up an array variable imported from a lossy file format}
+\usage{
+cleanImportedArray(variable, min.prefix.length = 20)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{variable}{An array Variable}
+
+\item{min.prefix.length}{Integer: how many characters long does the common
+string need to be in order to consider it significant enough to use? Default
+is 20.}
+}
+\value{
+\code{variable} with edits pushed to the API. A common prefix on
+subvariable names is extracted and set as the variable's description.
+}
+\description{
+Array and multiple-response variables coming in from SPSS or other file
+formats generally need some work to reconstruct the "right" metadata because
+they have to shove both parent and subvariable metadata into the "varlabels"
+of the subvariables. This often follows a pattern of having varlabels with a
+prefix containing the parent question wording (description) and a suffix that
+is the actual response label.
+}
+\details{
+This function detects this prefix and reconstructs what may have been the
+original array definition.
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-clean-array.R b/tests/testthat/test-clean-array.R
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..717ce3c32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-clean-array.R
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+context("Cleaning array variables")
+
+test_that("findCommonPrefix", {
+    expect_identical(findCommonPrefix(c("abc def", "ab cd ef")), "ab")
+    expect_identical(findCommonPrefix(c("XX select all. A", "XX select all. BB")), "XX select all. ")
+    expect_identical(findCommonPrefix(c("A", "B")), "")
+    expect_identical(findCommonPrefix(c("abc defg", "abc defg")), "abc defg")
+    expect_identical(findCommonPrefix(c("abc defg", "gfed cbaooo")), "")
+})