diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/SqlWalker.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/SqlWalker.php
index 35ac87c38..c24fa40cc 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/SqlWalker.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/SqlWalker.php
@@ -291,7 +291,8 @@ class SqlWalker implements TreeWalker
         $tableName .= ($dqlAlias) ? '@[' . $dqlAlias . ']' : '';
 
         if ( ! isset($this->tableAliasMap[$tableName])) {
-            $this->tableAliasMap[$tableName] = strtolower(substr($tableName, 0, 1)) . $this->tableAliasCounter++ . '_';
+            $this->tableAliasMap[$tableName] = (preg_match('/[a-z]/i', $tableName[0]) ? strtolower($tableName[0]) : 't')
+                . $this->tableAliasCounter++ . '_';
         }
 
         return $this->tableAliasMap[$tableName];
diff --git a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Query/SqlWalkerTest.php b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Query/SqlWalkerTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..263cffc56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Query/SqlWalkerTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Doctrine\Tests\ORM\Query;
+
+use Doctrine\ORM\Query\SqlWalker;
+use Doctrine\ORM\Query;
+use Doctrine\Tests\OrmTestCase;
+use Doctrine\ORM\Query\ParserResult;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for {@see \Doctrine\ORM\Query\SqlWalker}
+ *
+ * @covers \Doctrine\ORM\Query\SqlWalker
+ */
+class SqlWalkerTest extends OrmTestCase
+{
+    /**
+     * @var SqlWalker
+     */
+    private $sqlWalker;
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     */
+    protected function setUp()
+    {
+        $this->sqlWalker = new SqlWalker(new Query($this->_getTestEntityManager()), new ParserResult(), array());
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getColumnNamesAndSqlAliases
+     */
+    public function testGetSQLTableAlias($tableName, $expectedAlias)
+    {
+        $this->assertSame($expectedAlias, $this->sqlWalker->getSQLTableAlias($tableName));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @dataProvider getColumnNamesAndSqlAliases
+     */
+    public function testGetSQLTableAliasIsSameForMultipleCalls($tableName)
+    {
+        $this->assertSame(
+            $this->sqlWalker->getSQLTableAlias($tableName),
+            $this->sqlWalker->getSQLTableAlias($tableName)
+        );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * @private data provider
+     *
+     * @return string[][]
+     */
+    public function getColumnNamesAndSqlAliases()
+    {
+        return array(
+            array('aaaaa', 'a0_'),
+            array('table', 't0_'),
+            array('çtable', 't0_'),
+        );
+    }
+}