diff --git a/inference-engine/src/vpu/graph_transformer/src/model/data.cpp b/inference-engine/src/vpu/graph_transformer/src/model/data.cpp
index 9f86a3fcb7d..f2748290514 100644
--- a/inference-engine/src/vpu/graph_transformer/src/model/data.cpp
+++ b/inference-engine/src/vpu/graph_transformer/src/model/data.cpp
@@ -217,13 +217,14 @@ void DataNode::serializeIOInfo(BlobSerializer& serializer) const {
     serializer.append(checked_cast<uint32_t>(ioBufferOffset));
 
     auto nameLength = checked_cast<uint32_t>(_name.length());
-    auto nameLengthAligned = alignVal(nameLength, 16u);
+    auto nameSize = nameLength + 1; // required to support c-string when the name length is multiple of 16
+    auto nameSizeAligned = alignVal(nameSize, 16u);
 
-    serializer.append(nameLengthAligned);
+    serializer.append(nameSizeAligned);
     for (auto c : _name) {
         serializer.append(c);
     }
-    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < nameLengthAligned - nameLength; ++i) {
+    for (uint32_t i = 0; i < nameSizeAligned - nameLength; ++i) {
         serializer.append(uint8_t(0));
     }