diff --git a/hugolib/permalinks.go b/hugolib/permalinks.go
index 155b1b813..f6c2ec80d 100644
--- a/hugolib/permalinks.go
+++ b/hugolib/permalinks.go
@@ -26,9 +26,6 @@ var knownPermalinkAttributes map[string]PageToPermaAttribute
 
 // validate determines if a PathPattern is well-formed
 func (pp PathPattern) validate() bool {
-	if pp[0] != '/' {
-		return false
-	}
 	fragments := strings.Split(string(pp[1:]), "/")
 	var bail = false
 	for i := range fragments {
diff --git a/hugolib/permalinks_test.go b/hugolib/permalinks_test.go
index 019b23c2f..f1439d987 100644
--- a/hugolib/permalinks_test.go
+++ b/hugolib/permalinks_test.go
@@ -14,9 +14,8 @@ var testdataPermalinks = []struct {
 }{
 	{"/:year/:month/:title/", true, "/2012/04/spf13-vim-3.0-release-and-new-website/"},
 	{"/:title", true, "/spf13-vim-3.0-release-and-new-website"},
-	{":title", false, ""},
+	{":title", true, "spf13-vim-3.0-release-and-new-website"},
 	{"/blog/:year/:yearday/:title", true, "/blog/2012/97/spf13-vim-3.0-release-and-new-website"},
-	{":fred", false, ""},
 	{"/blog/:fred", false, ""},
 	{"/:year//:title", false, ""},
 	{