diff --git a/docs/user_guide.md b/docs/user_guide.md
index 7c2ca318..676128e7 100644
--- a/docs/user_guide.md
+++ b/docs/user_guide.md
@@ -182,6 +182,12 @@ BM_memcpy/32          12 ns         12 ns   54687500
 BM_memcpy/32k       1834 ns       1837 ns     357143
 ```
 
+## Disabling Benchmarks
+
+It is possible to temporarily disable benchmarks by renaming the benchmark
+function to have the prefix "DISABLED_". This will cause the benchmark to
+be skipped at runtime.
+
 <a name="result-comparison" />
 
 ## Result comparison
diff --git a/src/benchmark_register.cc b/src/benchmark_register.cc
index 36b3a0ba..c2a8b68c 100644
--- a/src/benchmark_register.cc
+++ b/src/benchmark_register.cc
@@ -53,10 +53,13 @@ namespace benchmark {
 
 namespace {
 // For non-dense Range, intermediate values are powers of kRangeMultiplier.
-static const int kRangeMultiplier = 8;
+static constexpr int kRangeMultiplier = 8;
+
 // The size of a benchmark family determines is the number of inputs to repeat
 // the benchmark on. If this is "large" then warn the user during configuration.
-static const size_t kMaxFamilySize = 100;
+static constexpr size_t kMaxFamilySize = 100;
+
+static constexpr char kDisabledPrefix[] = "DISABLED_";
 }  // end namespace
 
 namespace internal {
@@ -116,10 +119,10 @@ bool BenchmarkFamilies::FindBenchmarks(
   // Make regular expression out of command-line flag
   std::string error_msg;
   Regex re;
-  bool isNegativeFilter = false;
+  bool is_negative_filter = false;
   if (spec[0] == '-') {
     spec.replace(0, 1, "");
-    isNegativeFilter = true;
+    is_negative_filter = true;
   }
   if (!re.Init(spec, &error_msg)) {
     Err << "Could not compile benchmark re: " << error_msg << std::endl;
@@ -154,7 +157,8 @@ bool BenchmarkFamilies::FindBenchmarks(
           << " will be repeated at least " << family_size << " times.\n";
     }
     // reserve in the special case the regex ".", since we know the final
-    // family size.
+    // family size.  this doesn't take into account any disabled benchmarks
+    // so worst case we reserve more than we need.
     if (spec == ".") benchmarks->reserve(benchmarks->size() + family_size);
 
     for (auto const& args : family->args_) {
@@ -164,8 +168,9 @@ bool BenchmarkFamilies::FindBenchmarks(
                                    num_threads);
 
         const auto full_name = instance.name().str();
-        if ((re.Match(full_name) && !isNegativeFilter) ||
-            (!re.Match(full_name) && isNegativeFilter)) {
+        if (full_name.rfind(kDisabledPrefix, 0) != 0 &&
+            ((re.Match(full_name) && !is_negative_filter) ||
+             (!re.Match(full_name) && is_negative_filter))) {
           benchmarks->push_back(std::move(instance));
 
           ++per_family_instance_index;
diff --git a/test/register_benchmark_test.cc b/test/register_benchmark_test.cc
index 602405b6..37dbba6b 100644
--- a/test/register_benchmark_test.cc
+++ b/test/register_benchmark_test.cc
@@ -95,6 +95,18 @@ ADD_CASES({"test1", "One"}, {"test2", "Two"}, {"test3", "Three"});
 
 #endif  // BENCHMARK_HAS_NO_VARIADIC_REGISTER_BENCHMARK
 
+//----------------------------------------------------------------------------//
+// Test RegisterBenchmark with DISABLED_ benchmark
+//----------------------------------------------------------------------------//
+void DISABLED_BM_function(benchmark::State& state) {
+  for (auto _ : state) {
+  }
+}
+BENCHMARK(DISABLED_BM_function);
+ReturnVal dummy3 = benchmark::RegisterBenchmark("DISABLED_BM_function_manual",
+                                                DISABLED_BM_function);
+// No need to add cases because we don't expect them to run.
+
 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------//
 // Test RegisterBenchmark with different callable types
 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------//