diff --git a/railties/lib/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb b/railties/lib/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
index c439ed89f582e66197a05d7738a44f86ebe03428..ea1930a966d043b73707904dcbfa1b2533f5645a 100644
--- a/railties/lib/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ module Rails::Generators
   # can change in Ruby 1.8.7 when we FileUtils.cd.
   RAILS_DEV_PATH = File.expand_path("../../../../..", File.dirname(__FILE__))
 
+  RESERVED_NAMES = %w[generate console server dbconsole
+                      application destroy benchmarker profiler
+                      plugin runner test]
+
   class AppGenerator < Base
     DATABASES = %w( mysql oracle postgresql sqlite3 frontbase ibm_db )
 
@@ -209,9 +213,10 @@ def app_const
       end
 
       def valid_app_const?
-        case app_const
-        when /^\d/
+        if app_const =~ /^\d/
           raise Error, "Invalid application name #{app_name}. Please give a name which does not start with numbers."
+        elsif RESERVED_NAMES.include?(app_name)
+          raise Error, "Invalid application name #{app_name}. Please give a name which does not match one of the reserved rails words."
         end
       end
 
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
index 0a746b200ffb6bfd19e613fc0143a0c71ac41d9d..01d643cd8c4dfb8a1bd98f7a9a0b174c7802bab3 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/app_generator_test.rb
@@ -50,6 +50,11 @@ def test_application_skeleton_is_created
     ).each{ |path| assert_file path }
   end
 
+  def test_name_collision_raises_an_error
+    content = capture(:stderr){ run_generator [File.join(destination_root, "generate")] }
+    assert_equal "Invalid application name generate. Please give a name which does not match one of the reserved rails words.\n", content
+  end
+
   def test_invalid_database_option_raises_an_error
     content = capture(:stderr){ run_generator([destination_root, "-d", "unknown"]) }
     assert_match /Invalid value for \-\-database option/, content