diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/551-fix_connection_arguments_driver_compatability.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/551-fix_connection_arguments_driver_compatability.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..be18f560
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/551-fix_connection_arguments_driver_compatability.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - mysql module utils - use the connection arguments ``db`` instead of ``database`` and ``passwd`` instead of ``password`` when running with older mysql drivers (MySQLdb < 2.1.0 or PyMySQL < 1.0.0) (https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.mysql/pull/551).
diff --git a/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py b/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
index 6aeebe54..713aba89 100644
--- a/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
+++ b/plugins/module_utils/mysql.py
@@ -134,18 +134,34 @@ def mysql_connect(module, login_user=None, login_password=None, config_file='',
     if connect_timeout is not None:
         config['connect_timeout'] = connect_timeout
     if check_hostname is not None:
-        if mysql_driver.__name__ == "pymysql":
+        if get_connector_name(mysql_driver) == 'pymysql':
             version_tuple = (n for n in mysql_driver.__version__.split('.') if n != 'None')
             if reduce(lambda x, y: int(x) * 100 + int(y), version_tuple) >= 711:
                 config['ssl']['check_hostname'] = check_hostname
             else:
                 module.fail_json(msg='To use check_hostname, pymysql >= 0.7.11 is required on the target host')
 
-    if _mysql_cursor_param == 'cursor':
+    if get_connector_name(mysql_driver) == 'pymysql':
         # In case of PyMySQL driver:
+        if mysql_driver.version_info[0] < 1:
+            # for PyMySQL < 1.0.0, use 'db' instead of 'database' and 'passwd' instead of 'password'
+            if 'database' in config:
+                config['db'] = config['database']
+                del config['database']
+            if 'password' in config:
+                config['passwd'] = config['password']
+                del config['password']
         db_connection = mysql_driver.connect(autocommit=autocommit, **config)
     else:
         # In case of MySQLdb driver
+        if mysql_driver.version_info[0] < 2 and mysql_driver.version_info[1] < 1:
+            # for MySQLdb < 2.1.0, use 'db' instead of 'database' and 'passwd' instead of 'password'
+            if 'database' in config:
+                config['db'] = config['database']
+                del config['database']
+            if 'password' in config:
+                config['passwd'] = config['password']
+                del config['password']
         db_connection = mysql_driver.connect(**config)
         if autocommit:
             db_connection.autocommit(True)