diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt b/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt
index ec1739a896..e8035ece42 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-check-ref-format.txt
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ Git imposes the following rules on how references are named:
 
 . They cannot contain a sequence `@{`.
 
+. They cannot be the single character `@`.
+
 . They cannot contain a `\`.
 
 These rules make it easy for shell script based tools to parse
diff --git a/Documentation/revisions.txt b/Documentation/revisions.txt
index d477b3f6bc..09896a37b1 100644
--- a/Documentation/revisions.txt
+++ b/Documentation/revisions.txt
@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ the '$GIT_DIR/refs' directory or from the '$GIT_DIR/packed-refs' file.
 While the ref name encoding is unspecified, UTF-8 is preferred as
 some output processing may assume ref names in UTF-8.
 
+'@'::
+  '@' alone is a shortcut for 'HEAD'.
+
 '<refname>@\{<date>\}', e.g. 'master@\{yesterday\}', 'HEAD@\{5 minutes ago\}'::
   A ref followed by the suffix '@' with a date specification
   enclosed in a brace
diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index de2d8eb866..4e70b3eca0 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ int check_refname_format(const char *refname, int flags)
 {
 	int component_len, component_count = 0;
 
+	if (!strcmp(refname, "@"))
+		/* Refname is a single character '@'. */
+		return -1;
+
 	while (1) {
 		/* We are at the start of a path component. */
 		component_len = check_refname_component(refname, flags);
diff --git a/sha1_name.c b/sha1_name.c
index f60c951234..4428df19a7 100644
--- a/sha1_name.c
+++ b/sha1_name.c
@@ -972,6 +972,17 @@ int get_sha1_mb(const char *name, unsigned char *sha1)
 	return st;
 }
 
+/* parse @something syntax, when 'something' is not {.*} */
+static int interpret_empty_at(const char *name, int namelen, int len, struct strbuf *buf)
+{
+	if (len || name[1] == '{')
+		return -1;
+
+	strbuf_reset(buf);
+	strbuf_add(buf, "HEAD", 4);
+	return 1;
+}
+
 static int reinterpret(const char *name, int namelen, int len, struct strbuf *buf)
 {
 	/* we have extra data, which might need further processing */
@@ -1032,9 +1043,15 @@ int interpret_branch_name(const char *name, struct strbuf *buf)
 	cp = strchr(name, '@');
 	if (!cp)
 		return -1;
+
+	len = interpret_empty_at(name, namelen, cp - name, buf);
+	if (len > 0)
+		return reinterpret(name, namelen, len, buf);
+
 	tmp_len = upstream_mark(cp, namelen - (cp - name));
 	if (!tmp_len)
 		return -1;
+
 	len = cp + tmp_len - name;
 	cp = xstrndup(name, cp - name);
 	upstream = branch_get(*cp ? cp : NULL);
diff --git a/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh b/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
index e5aea3b896..4db1613f8a 100755
--- a/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
+++ b/t/t1508-at-combinations.sh
@@ -55,6 +55,8 @@ check "HEAD@{u}" ref refs/heads/upstream-branch
 check "@{u}@{1}" commit upstream-one
 check "@{-1}@{u}" ref refs/heads/master
 check "@{-1}@{u}@{1}" commit master-one
+check "@" commit new-two
+check "@@{u}" ref refs/heads/upstream-branch
 nonsense "@{u}@{-1}"
 nonsense "@{0}@{0}"
 nonsense "@{1}@{u}"