diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index dae32953cd93ecb7c465a22703bcf7deb0623714..6bd93b8cd4bd3fc70665633a924e262e2043d3b0 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ v 7.8.1
   - Fix urls for the issues when relative url was enabled
   - Add Bitbucket omniauth provider.
   - Add Bitbucket importer.
+  - Support referencing issues to a project whose name starts with a digit
 
 v 7.8.0
   - Fix access control and protection against XSS for note attachments and other uploads.
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/markdown.rb b/lib/gitlab/markdown.rb
index a1fd794aed29a6c7409d1529536b63a16310addd..d85c2ee4f2dd36d27f22ee96cfa39fa2ec8e73bf 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/markdown.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/markdown.rb
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ module Gitlab
       text
     end
 
-    NAME_STR = '[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]*'
+    NAME_STR = '[a-zA-Z0-9_][a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]*'
     PROJ_STR = "(?<project>#{NAME_STR}/#{NAME_STR})"
 
     REFERENCE_PATTERN = %r{