diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/mlab.py b/lib/matplotlib/mlab.py
index 083e13e36c7d..cc2811438798 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/mlab.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/mlab.py
@@ -2867,14 +2867,20 @@ def get_func(name, item, func):
         'print':  'print_',
         }
 
-    def get_converters(reader):
+    def get_converters(reader, comments):
 
         converters = None
-        for i, row in enumerate(reader):
+        i = 0
+        for row in reader:
+            if (len(row) and comments is not None and
+                    row[0].startswith(comments)):
+                continue
             if i == 0:
                 converters = [mybool]*len(row)
             if checkrows and i > checkrows:
                 break
+            i += 1
+
             for j, (name, item) in enumerate(zip(names, row)):
                 func = converterd.get(j)
                 if func is None:
@@ -2925,7 +2931,7 @@ def get_converters(reader):
             names = [n.strip() for n in names.split(',')]
 
     # get the converter functions by inspecting checkrows
-    converters = get_converters(reader)
+    converters = get_converters(reader, comments)
     if converters is None:
         raise ValueError('Could not find any valid data in CSV file')
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_mlab.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_mlab.py
index 51652a49ef52..71d3a92aec37 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_mlab.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_mlab.py
@@ -339,6 +339,13 @@ def test_rec2csv_bad_shape_ValueError(self):
         # the bad recarray should trigger a ValueError for having ndim > 1.
         assert_raises(ValueError, mlab.rec2csv, bad, self.fd)
 
+    def test_csv2rec_names_with_comments(self):
+        self.fd.write('# comment\n1,2,3\n4,5,6\n')
+        self.fd.seek(0)
+        array = mlab.csv2rec(self.fd, names='a,b,c')
+        assert len(array) == 2
+        assert len(array.dtype) == 3
+
 
 class window_testcase(CleanupTestCase):
     def setUp(self):