diff --git a/django/http/__init__.py b/django/http/__init__.py
index 30d7e5dc2f1..51e6ca23041 100644
--- a/django/http/__init__.py
+++ b/django/http/__init__.py
@@ -524,14 +524,16 @@ class HttpResponse(object):
 
     status_code = 200
 
-    def __init__(self, content='', mimetype=None, status=None,
-            content_type=None):
+    def __init__(self, content='', content_type=None, status=None,
+            mimetype=None):
         # _headers is a mapping of the lower-case name to the original case of
         # the header (required for working with legacy systems) and the header
         # value. Both the name of the header and its value are ASCII strings.
         self._headers = {}
         self._charset = settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET
-        if mimetype: # For backwards compatibility.
+        if mimetype:
+            warnings.warn("Using mimetype keyword argument is deprecated, use"
+                          " content_type instead", PendingDeprecationWarning)
             content_type = mimetype
         if not content_type:
             content_type = "%s; charset=%s" % (settings.DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE,
diff --git a/django/template/response.py b/django/template/response.py
index bb0b9cbf9d8..286417ccdf4 100644
--- a/django/template/response.py
+++ b/django/template/response.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ class ContentNotRenderedError(Exception):
 class SimpleTemplateResponse(HttpResponse):
     rendering_attrs = ['template_name', 'context_data', '_post_render_callbacks']
 
-    def __init__(self, template, context=None, mimetype=None, status=None,
-            content_type=None):
+    def __init__(self, template, context=None, content_type=None, status=None,
+            mimetype=None):
         # It would seem obvious to call these next two members 'template' and
         # 'context', but those names are reserved as part of the test Client
         # API. To avoid the name collision, we use tricky-to-debug problems
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ class SimpleTemplateResponse(HttpResponse):
         # content argument doesn't make sense here because it will be replaced
         # with rendered template so we always pass empty string in order to
         # prevent errors and provide shorter signature.
-        super(SimpleTemplateResponse, self).__init__('', mimetype, status,
-                                                     content_type)
+        super(SimpleTemplateResponse, self).__init__('', content_type, status,
+                                                     mimetype)
 
         # _is_rendered tracks whether the template and context has been baked
         # into a final response.
@@ -137,8 +137,8 @@ class TemplateResponse(SimpleTemplateResponse):
     rendering_attrs = SimpleTemplateResponse.rendering_attrs + \
         ['_request', '_current_app']
 
-    def __init__(self, request, template, context=None, mimetype=None,
-            status=None, content_type=None, current_app=None):
+    def __init__(self, request, template, context=None, content_type=None,
+            status=None, mimetype=None, current_app=None):
         # self.request gets over-written by django.test.client.Client - and
         # unlike context_data and template_name the _request should not
         # be considered part of the public API.
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ class TemplateResponse(SimpleTemplateResponse):
         # having to avoid needing to create the RequestContext directly
         self._current_app = current_app
         super(TemplateResponse, self).__init__(
-            template, context, mimetype, status, content_type)
+            template, context, content_type, status, mimetype)
 
     def resolve_context(self, context):
         """Convert context data into a full RequestContext object
diff --git a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
index f338adac332..9359c82e467 100644
--- a/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
+++ b/docs/internals/deprecation.txt
@@ -280,6 +280,9 @@ these changes.
   specified as a plain string instead of a tuple will be removed and raise an
   exception.
 
+* The ``mimetype`` argument to :class:`~django.http.HttpResponse` ``__init__``
+  will be removed (``content_type`` should be used instead).
+
 2.0
 ---
 
diff --git a/docs/ref/request-response.txt b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
index a29ddc63ccb..551ee00c6b1 100644
--- a/docs/ref/request-response.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/request-response.txt
@@ -606,11 +606,10 @@ Attributes
 Methods
 -------
 
-.. method:: HttpResponse.__init__(content='', mimetype=None, status=200, content_type=DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE)
+.. method:: HttpResponse.__init__(content='', content_type=None, status=200)
 
-    Instantiates an ``HttpResponse`` object with the given page content (a
-    string) and MIME type. The :setting:`DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE` is
-    ``'text/html'``.
+    Instantiates an ``HttpResponse`` object with the given page content and
+    content type.
 
     ``content`` should be an iterator or a string. If it's an
     iterator, it should return strings, and those strings will be
@@ -618,15 +617,15 @@ Methods
     an iterator or a string, it will be converted to a string when
     accessed.
 
+    ``content_type`` is the MIME type optionally completed by a character set
+    encoding and is used to fill the HTTP ``Content-Type`` header. If not
+    specified, it is formed by the :setting:`DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE` and
+    :setting:`DEFAULT_CHARSET` settings, by default: "`text/html; charset=utf-8`".
+
+    Historically, this parameter was called ``mimetype`` (now deprecated).
+
     ``status`` is the `HTTP Status code`_ for the response.
 
-    ``content_type`` is an alias for ``mimetype``. Historically, this parameter
-    was only called ``mimetype``, but since this is actually the value included
-    in the HTTP ``Content-Type`` header, it can also include the character set
-    encoding, which makes it more than just a MIME type specification.
-    If ``mimetype`` is specified (not ``None``), that value is used.
-    Otherwise, ``content_type`` is used. If neither is given, the
-    :setting:`DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE` setting is used.
 
 .. method:: HttpResponse.__setitem__(header, value)