diff --git a/js/core/utils.js b/js/core/utils.js
index a9523bf7b8..af431431c6 100644
--- a/js/core/utils.js
+++ b/js/core/utils.js
@@ -44,16 +44,18 @@ define(
         $.fn.getDfnTitles = function ( args ) {
             var titles = [];
             var theAttr = "";
-            var titleString = ""; 
-            if (this.attr("data-lt")) {
+            var titleString = "";
+            var normalizedTextContent = utils.normalizeString(this.text());
+            // allow @lt to be consistent with bikeshed
+            if (this.attr("data-lt") || this.attr("lt")) {
+                theAttr = this.attr("data-lt") ? "data-lt" : "lt";
                 // prefer @data-lt for the list of title aliases
-                titleString = this.attr("data-lt");
-                theAttr = "data-lt";
-            }
-            else if (this.attr("lt")) {
-                // allow @lt to be consistent with bikeshed
-                titleString = this.attr("lt");
-                theAttr = "lt";
+                titleString = this.attr(theAttr);
+                // Use the definition itself as first item, so to avoid
+                // having to declare the definition twice.
+                if(!this.attr(theAttr).startsWith(normalizedTextContent)) {
+                    titleString = normalizedTextContent + "|" + titleString;
+                }
             }
             else if (this.attr("title")) {
                 // allow @title for backward compatibility
@@ -70,11 +72,7 @@ define(
                 titleString = this.text();
             }
             // now we have a string of one or more titles
-            titleString = titleString.toLowerCase() // mask to lower case
-                .replace(/^\s+/, "") // strip out any leading whitespace
-                .replace(/\s+$/, "") // and any trailing whitespace
-                .split(/\s+/) // split on any whitepace
-                .join(" ");  // and replace with a single space
+            titleString = utils.normalizeString(titleString);
             if (args && args.isDefinition === true) {
                 // if it came from an attribute, replace that with data-lt as per contract with Shepherd
                 if (theAttr) {
@@ -199,7 +197,12 @@ define(
                 }
                 return ret;
             }
-
+        ,   normalizeString: function(str) {
+                return str.toLowerCase() // mask to lower case
+                    .trim() // trim trailing/leading whitespace
+                    .split(/\s+/) // split on any whitespace
+                    .join(" ");  // and replace with a single space
+            }
             // Takes a string, applies some XML escapes, and returns the escaped string.
             // Note that overall using either Handlebars' escaped output or jQuery is much
             // preferred to operating on strings directly.
diff --git a/tests/spec/core/utils-spec.js b/tests/spec/core/utils-spec.js
index 671cd4b177..76d532da68 100644
--- a/tests/spec/core/utils-spec.js
+++ b/tests/spec/core/utils-spec.js
@@ -134,14 +134,31 @@ describe("Core - Utils", function () {
         });
     });
 
+    // $.getDfnTitles()
+    it("should find the data-lts", function () {
+        runs(function () {
+            var $dfn = $("<dfn data-lt='DFN|DFN2|DFN3'><abbr title='ABBR'>TEXT</abbr></dfn>").appendTo($("body"));
+            var titles = $dfn.getDfnTitles( { isDefinition: true } );
+            expect(titles[0]).toEqual("text");
+            expect(titles[1]).toEqual("dfn");
+            expect(titles[2]).toEqual("dfn2");
+            expect(titles[3]).toEqual("dfn3");
+            $dfn.removeAttr("data-lt");
+            expect($dfn.getDfnTitles()[0]).toEqual("abbr");
+            $dfn.find("abbr").removeAttr("title");
+            expect($dfn.getDfnTitles()[0]).toEqual("text");
+            $dfn.remove();
+        });
+    });
     // $.getDfnTitles()
     it("should find the definition title", function () {
         runs(function () {
             var $dfn = $("<dfn lt='DFN|DFN2|DFN3'><abbr title='ABBR'>TEXT</abbr></dfn>").appendTo($("body"));
             var titles = $dfn.getDfnTitles( { isDefinition: true } );
-            expect(titles[0]).toEqual("dfn");
-            expect(titles[1]).toEqual("dfn2");
-            expect(titles[2]).toEqual("dfn3");
+            expect(titles[0]).toEqual("text");
+            expect(titles[1]).toEqual("dfn");
+            expect(titles[2]).toEqual("dfn2");
+            expect(titles[3]).toEqual("dfn3");
             $dfn.removeAttr("data-lt");
             expect($dfn.getDfnTitles()[0]).toEqual("abbr");
             $dfn.find("abbr").removeAttr("title");
@@ -155,11 +172,13 @@ describe("Core - Utils", function () {
         runs(function () {
             var $dfn = $("<dfn lt='DFN|DFN2|DFN3'>TEXT</dfn>").appendTo($("body"));
             var titles = $dfn.getDfnTitles( { isDefinition: true } );
-            expect(titles[0]).toEqual("dfn");
-            expect(titles[1]).toEqual("dfn2");
-            expect(titles[2]).toEqual("dfn3");
-            expect($dfn.attr("data-lt")).toEqual('dfn|dfn2|dfn3');
-            expect($dfn.getDfnTitles()[0]).toEqual("dfn");
+            expect(titles[0]).toEqual("text");
+            expect(titles[1]).toEqual("dfn");
+            expect(titles[2]).toEqual("dfn2");
+            expect(titles[3]).toEqual("dfn3");
+            console.log(titles, $dfn.attr("data-lt"), $dfn.getDfnTitles())
+            expect($dfn.attr("data-lt")).toEqual("text|dfn|dfn2|dfn3");
+            expect($dfn.getDfnTitles()[1]).toEqual("dfn");
             $dfn.remove();
         });
     });