diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index fbcc88c070c..f3e8bf54b3f 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -87,6 +87,9 @@ Trunk (not yet released)
     AVRO-1681. Improve generated JavaDocs.
     (Charles Gariépy-Ikeson via tomwhite)
 
+    AVRO-1645. Ruby: Improved handling of missing named types.
+    (Daniel Schierbeck via tomwhite)
+
   BUG FIXES
 
     AVRO-1553. Java: MapReduce never uses MapOutputValueSchema (tomwhite)
diff --git a/lang/ruby/lib/avro/schema.rb b/lang/ruby/lib/avro/schema.rb
index 1fb05e69ada..142157775ee 100644
--- a/lang/ruby/lib/avro/schema.rb
+++ b/lang/ruby/lib/avro/schema.rb
@@ -86,8 +86,7 @@ def self.real_parse(json_obj, names=nil, default_namespace=nil)
       elsif PRIMITIVE_TYPES.include? json_obj
         return PrimitiveSchema.new(json_obj)
       else
-        msg = "#{json_obj.inspect} is not a schema we know about."
-        raise SchemaParseError.new(msg)
+        raise UnknownSchemaError.new(json_obj)
       end
     end
 
@@ -370,6 +369,15 @@ def to_avro(names=Set.new)
 
   class SchemaParseError < AvroError; end
 
+  class UnknownSchemaError < SchemaParseError
+    attr_reader :type_name
+
+    def initialize(type)
+      @type_name = type
+      super("#{type.inspect} is not a schema we know about.")
+    end
+  end
+
   module Name
     def self.extract_namespace(name, namespace)
       parts = name.split('.')
diff --git a/lang/ruby/test/test_schema.rb b/lang/ruby/test/test_schema.rb
index 165f04e3057..0668cf2f367 100644
--- a/lang/ruby/test/test_schema.rb
+++ b/lang/ruby/test/test_schema.rb
@@ -131,4 +131,16 @@ def test_to_avro_includes_namespaces
       ]
     }
   end
+
+  def test_unknown_named_type
+    error = assert_raise Avro::UnknownSchemaError do
+      Avro::Schema.parse <<-SCHEMA
+        {"type": "record", "name": "my.name.space.Record", "fields": [
+          {"name": "reference", "type": "MissingType"}
+        ]}
+      SCHEMA
+    end
+
+    assert_equal '"MissingType" is not a schema we know about.', error.message
+  end
 end