diff --git a/include/pybind11/pybind11.h b/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
index bcdf641f4..7c65a2ec8 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/pybind11.h
@@ -1301,6 +1301,21 @@ public:
         //       For Python 2, reinterpret_borrow was correct.
         return reinterpret_borrow<module_>(m);
     }
+
+    struct strip_leading_underscore_from_name {};
+
+    module_ make_alias(const char *name) {
+        module_ ret = *this;
+        ret.attr("__name__") = name;
+        return ret;
+    }
+
+    module_ make_alias(strip_leading_underscore_from_name) {
+        const char *name = PyModule_GetName(*this);
+        if (name && name[0] == '_')
+            name += 1;
+        return make_alias(name);
+    }
 };
 
 PYBIND11_NAMESPACE_BEGIN(detail)
diff --git a/tests/test_make_alias.cpp b/tests/test_make_alias.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..487df8292
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_make_alias.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+/*
+    tests/make_alias -- make alias
+
+    Copyright (c) 2016 Wenzel Jakob <wenzel.jakob@epfl.ch>
+
+    All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
+    BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+*/
+
+#include <pybind11/pybind11.h>
+
+#include "constructor_stats.h"
+#include "pybind11_tests.h"
+
+#if defined(_MSC_VER)
+#    pragma warning(disable : 4996) // C4996: std::unary_negation is deprecated
+#endif
+
+TEST_SUBMODULE(_make_alias, m) {
+    ma = m.make_alias(pybind11::module::strip_leading_underscore_from_name{});
+    ma.def("foo", []() -> {});
+}
diff --git a/tests/test_make_alias.py b/tests/test_make_alias.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f8d4f6862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_make_alias.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+import pytest
+
+from pybind11_tests import ConstructorStats
+
+m = pytest.importorskip("pybind11_tests._make_alias")
+
+
+def assert_name(mat):
+    assert m.__name__ == "make_alias"