diff --git a/scapy/fields.py b/scapy/fields.py
index 4cb8cba4b6b971d52d54b88d56f4e5eb0947ac4a..34cea528629277a74626e2e666a9cf7c068f25fe 100644
--- a/scapy/fields.py
+++ b/scapy/fields.py
@@ -770,12 +770,12 @@ class LEFieldLenField(FieldLenField):
 
 class FlagsField(BitField):
     def __init__(self, name, default, size, names):
-        BitField.__init__(self, name, default, size)
         self.multi = type(names) is list
         if self.multi:
             self.names = map(lambda x:[x], names)
         else:
             self.names = names
+        BitField.__init__(self, name, default, size)
     def any2i(self, pkt, x):
         if type(x) is str:
             if self.multi: