diff --git a/stats/stats.go b/stats/stats.go
index 22f4866db0b4..eaae2bf09674 100644
--- a/stats/stats.go
+++ b/stats/stats.go
@@ -466,13 +466,15 @@ func (m *Metric) Sample(t time.Time, tags *SampleTags, value float64) Sample {
 	}
 }
 
-func New(name string, typ MetricType, t ...ValueType) *Metric {
-	vt := Default
-	if len(t) > 0 {
-		vt = t[0]
+// newMetric instantiates a new Metric
+func newMetric(name string, mt MetricType, vt ...ValueType) *Metric {
+	contains := Default
+	if len(vt) > 0 {
+		contains = vt[0]
 	}
+
 	var sink Sink
-	switch typ {
+	switch mt {
 	case Counter:
 		sink = &CounterSink{}
 	case Gauge:
@@ -484,7 +486,8 @@ func New(name string, typ MetricType, t ...ValueType) *Metric {
 	default:
 		return nil
 	}
-	return &Metric{Name: name, Type: typ, Contains: vt, Sink: sink}
+
+	return &Metric{Name: name, Type: mt, Contains: contains, Sink: sink}
 }
 
 // A Submetric represents a filtered dataset based on a parent metric.
@@ -539,7 +542,7 @@ func (m *Metric) AddSubmetric(keyValues string) (*Submetric, error) {
 		Tags:   tags,
 		Parent: m,
 	}
-	subMetricMetric := New(subMetric.Name, m.Type, m.Contains)
+	subMetricMetric := newMetric(subMetric.Name, m.Type, m.Contains)
 	subMetricMetric.Sub = subMetric // sigh
 	subMetric.Metric = subMetricMetric
 
diff --git a/stats/stats_test.go b/stats/stats_test.go
index a206be7707ca..7ec7ae3887c8 100644
--- a/stats/stats_test.go
+++ b/stats/stats_test.go
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 )
 
-func TestNew(t *testing.T) {
+func TestNewMetric(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 	testdata := map[string]struct {
 		Type     MetricType
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ func TestNew(t *testing.T) {
 		name, data := name, data
 		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Parallel()
-			m := New("my_metric", data.Type)
+			m := newMetric("my_metric", data.Type)
 			assert.Equal(t, "my_metric", m.Name)
 			assert.IsType(t, data.SinkType, m.Sink)
 		})
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ func TestAddSubmetric(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Run(name, func(t *testing.T) {
 			t.Parallel()
 
-			m := New("metric", Trend)
+			m := newMetric("metric", Trend)
 			sm, err := m.AddSubmetric(name)
 			if expected.err {
 				require.Error(t, err)
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ func TestSampleImplementations(t *testing.T) {
 	now := time.Now()
 
 	sample := Sample{
-		Metric: New("test_metric", Counter),
+		Metric: newMetric("test_metric", Counter),
 		Time:   now,
 		Tags:   NewSampleTags(tagMap),
 		Value:  1.0,