diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_categorical.py b/pandas/tests/test_categorical.py
index c4caa499e72428..ab865433952dc1 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_categorical.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_categorical.py
@@ -2245,14 +2245,14 @@ def test_empty_astype(self, columns):
 
     def test_construction_series(self):
 
-        l = [1, 2, 3, 1]
-        exp = Series(l).astype('category')
-        res = Series(l, dtype='category')
+        data = [1, 2, 3, 1]
+        exp = Series(data).astype('category')
+        res = Series(data, dtype='category')
         tm.assert_series_equal(res, exp)
 
-        l = ["a", "b", "c", "a"]
-        exp = Series(l).astype('category')
-        res = Series(l, dtype='category')
+        data = ["a", "b", "c", "a"]
+        exp = Series(data).astype('category')
+        res = Series(data, dtype='category')
         tm.assert_series_equal(res, exp)
 
         # insert into frame with different index