diff --git a/lib/google/api_client/request.rb b/lib/google/api_client/request.rb
index 5dc4d91a6..704f24b54 100644
--- a/lib/google/api_client/request.rb
+++ b/lib/google/api_client/request.rb
@@ -72,8 +72,10 @@ module Google
       # @option options [String, Symbol] :http_method
       #   HTTP method when requesting a URI
       def initialize(options={})
-        @parameters = Faraday::Utils::ParamsHash[options[:parameters] || {}]
+        @parameters = Faraday::Utils::ParamsHash.new
         @headers = Faraday::Utils::Headers.new
+
+        self.parameters.merge!(options[:parameters]) unless options[:parameters].nil?
         self.headers.merge!(options[:headers]) unless options[:headers].nil?
         self.api_method = options[:api_method]
         self.authenticated = options[:authenticated]
diff --git a/spec/google/api_client/request_spec.rb b/spec/google/api_client/request_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..75f2bb8e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/google/api_client/request_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Copyright 2012 Google Inc.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+require 'google/api_client'
+require 'google/api_client/version'
+
+describe Google::APIClient::Request do
+  CLIENT = Google::APIClient.new(:application_name => 'API Client Tests') unless defined?(CLIENT)
+
+  it 'should normalize parameter names to strings' do
+    request = Google::APIClient::Request.new(:uri => 'https://www.google.com', :parameters => {
+      :a => '1', 'b' => '2'
+    })
+    request.parameters['a'].should == '1'
+    request.parameters['b'].should == '2'
+  end
+end