diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
index 80718147a8ccf..c8c9c3a75cadc 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *2.1.1 (next release)*
 
+* Set config.active_record.timestamped_migrations = false to have migrations with numeric prefix instead of UTC timestamp. #446. [Andrew Stone, Nik Wakelin]
+
 * Fixed that create database statements would always include "DEFAULT NULL" (Nick Sieger) [#334]
 
 * change_column_default preserves the not-null constraint.  #617 [Tarmo Tänav]
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
index 588da7b3cb563..639c6afc8fc5e 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb
@@ -439,6 +439,10 @@ def self.reset_subclasses #:nodoc:
     cattr_accessor :schema_format , :instance_writer => false
     @@schema_format = :ruby
 
+    # Specify whether or not to use timestamps for migration numbers
+    cattr_accessor :timestamped_migrations , :instance_writer => false
+    @@timestamped_migrations = true
+
     # Determine whether to store the full constant name including namespace when using STI
     superclass_delegating_accessor :store_full_sti_class
     self.store_full_sti_class = false
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb
index e095b3c76674a..731a350854724 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/migration.rb
@@ -238,6 +238,22 @@ def initialize(name)
   # lower than the current schema version: when migrating up, those
   # never-applied "interleaved" migrations will be automatically applied, and
   # when migrating down, never-applied "interleaved" migrations will be skipped.
+  # 
+  # == Timestamped Migrations
+  #
+  # By default, Rails generates migrations that look like:
+  #
+  #    20080717013526_your_migration_name.rb
+  #
+  # The prefix is a generation timestamp (in UTC).
+  #
+  # If you'd prefer to use numeric prefixes, you can turn timestamped migrations
+  # off by setting:
+  #
+  #    config.active_record.timestamped_migrations = false
+  # 
+  # In environment.rb.
+  #
   class Migration
     @@verbose = true
     cattr_accessor :verbose
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails_generator/commands.rb b/railties/lib/rails_generator/commands.rb
index fb62ba6940f8e..17ba03f5d88af 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails_generator/commands.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails_generator/commands.rb
@@ -57,6 +57,17 @@ def readme(*args)
         end
 
         protected
+          def current_migration_number
+            Dir.glob("#{RAILS_ROOT}/#{@migration_directory}/[0-9]*_*.rb").inject(0) do |max, file_path|
+              n = File.basename(file_path).split('_', 2).first.to_i
+              if n > max then n else max end
+            end
+          end
+             
+          def next_migration_number
+            current_migration_number + 1
+          end
+               
           def migration_directory(relative_path)
             directory(@migration_directory = relative_path)
           end
@@ -70,7 +81,11 @@ def migration_exists?(file_name)
           end
 
           def next_migration_string(padding = 3)
-            Time.now.utc.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
+            if ActiveRecord::Base.timestamped_migrations
+              Time.now.utc.strftime("%Y%m%d%H%M%S")
+            else
+              "%.#{padding}d" % next_migration_number
+            end
           end
 
           def gsub_file(relative_destination, regexp, *args, &block)