diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/rbbicst.pl b/icu4c/source/common/rbbicst.pl
index 362e043f0ac..20d4a6bd89e 100755
--- a/icu4c/source/common/rbbicst.pl
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/rbbicst.pl
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ print " };\n";
 #
 #    This array is used for producing debugging output from the rule parser.
 #
-print "static const char *RBBIRuleStateNames[] = {";
+print "static const char * const RBBIRuleStateNames[] = {";
 for ($state=0; $state<$num_states; $state++) {
     if ($stateNames[$state] ne "") {
         print "     \"$stateNames[$state]\",\n";
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/rbbirpt.h b/icu4c/source/common/rbbirpt.h
index 7c08cc468d9..174ed3ef7c2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/rbbirpt.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/rbbirpt.h
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ static const struct RBBIRuleTableEl gRuleParseStateTable[] = {
     , {doRuleErrorAssignExpr, 255, 86,0,  FALSE}     //  85 
     , {doExit, 255, 86,0,  TRUE}     //  86      errorDeath
  };
-static const char *RBBIRuleStateNames[] = {    0,
+static const char * const RBBIRuleStateNames[] = {    0,
      "start",
     0,
     0,