diff --git a/expfmt/text_parse.go b/expfmt/text_parse.go
index 4067978a1..181927f5a 100644
--- a/expfmt/text_parse.go
+++ b/expfmt/text_parse.go
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ type TextParser struct {
 // Summaries and histograms are rather special beasts. You would probably not
 // use them in the simple text format anyway. This method can deal with
 // summaries and histograms if they are presented in exactly the way the
-// text.Create function creates them.
+// text. Create function creates them.
 //
 // This method must not be called concurrently. If you want to parse different
 // input concurrently, instantiate a separate Parser for each goroutine.
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ func (p *TextParser) reset(in io.Reader) {
 	p.currentQuantile = math.NaN()
 	p.currentBucket = math.NaN()
 	p.currentMF = nil
+	p.currentMetric = nil
 }
 
 // startOfLine represents the state where the next byte read from p.buf is the
@@ -417,7 +418,7 @@ func (p *TextParser) startLabelValue() stateFn {
 		return p.startLabelName
 
 	case '}':
-		if p.currentMF == nil {
+		if p.currentMF == nil || p.currentMetric == nil {
 			p.parseError("invalid metric name")
 			return nil
 		}
diff --git a/expfmt/text_parse_test.go b/expfmt/text_parse_test.go
index fac60ba6f..64c64f411 100644
--- a/expfmt/text_parse_test.go
+++ b/expfmt/text_parse_test.go
@@ -934,6 +934,16 @@ line"="bla"} 3.14
 `,
 			err: `text format parsing error in line 2: label name "new" contains unescaped new-line`,
 		},
+		// 40: Metric's name missing.
+		{
+			in: `
+# HELP backupmonitor_size The size of the given backup.
+# TYPE backupmonitor_size counter
+{host="local", dir="alpha"} 1834194837
+{host="remote", dir="beta"} 133638016
+`,
+			err: `text format parsing error in line 4: invalid metric name`,
+		},
 	}
 	for i, scenario := range scenarios {
 		_, err := parser.TextToMetricFamilies(strings.NewReader(scenario.in))