diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/AnnotationReader.php b/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/AnnotationReader.php
index e44b11b00..f23236bde 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/AnnotationReader.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/AnnotationReader.php
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class AnnotationReader
     public function __construct(Cache $cache = null)
     {
         $this->_parser = new Parser;
-        $this->_cache = $cache ?: new Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache;
+        $this->_cache = $cache ?: new \Doctrine\Common\Cache\ArrayCache;
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Configuration.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Configuration.php
index b0df3bb14..b52542d05 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Configuration.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Configuration.php
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ class Configuration extends \Doctrine\DBAL\Configuration
             'namedQueries' => array(),
             'namedNativeQueries' => array(),
             'autoGenerateProxyClasses' => true,
-            'proxyNamespace' => null
+            'proxyNamespace' => null,
+            'entityAliasMap' => array()
         ));
     }
 
@@ -119,6 +120,38 @@ class Configuration extends \Doctrine\DBAL\Configuration
         $this->_attributes['metadataDriverImpl'] = $driverImpl;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Add an alias for an entity.
+     *
+     * @param string $className
+     * @param string $alias
+     */
+    public function addEntityAlias($className, $alias)
+    {
+        $this->_attributes['entityAliasMap'][$alias] = $className;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * get the array of entity aliases
+     *
+     * @return array $aliasMap
+     */
+    public function getEntityAliasMap()
+    {
+        return $this->_attributes['entityAliasMap'];
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the entity alias map
+     *
+     * @param array $entityAliasMap 
+     * @return void
+     */
+    public function setEntityAliasMap(array $entityAliasMap)
+    {
+      $this->_attributes['entityAliasMap'] = $entityAliasMap;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Gets the cache driver implementation that is used for the mapping metadata.
      *
diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/ClassMetadataFactory.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/ClassMetadataFactory.php
index 5117831e4..5bb495c73 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/ClassMetadataFactory.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Mapping/ClassMetadataFactory.php
@@ -128,6 +128,10 @@ class ClassMetadataFactory
     public function getMetadataFor($className)
     {
         if ( ! isset($this->_loadedMetadata[$className])) {
+            $aliasMap = $this->_em->getConfiguration()->getEntityAliasMap();
+            if (isset($aliasMap[$className])) {
+                $className = $aliasMap[$className];
+            }
             $cacheKey = "$className\$CLASSMETADATA";
             if ($this->_cacheDriver) {
                 if (($cached = $this->_cacheDriver->fetch($cacheKey)) !== false) {
diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/Parser.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/Parser.php
index a8767e539..eae389828 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/Parser.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Query/Parser.php
@@ -867,6 +867,10 @@ class Parser
         $this->match(Lexer::T_IDENTIFIER);
 
         $schemaName = $this->_lexer->token['value'];
+        $aliasMap = $this->_em->getConfiguration()->getEntityAliasMap();
+        if (isset($aliasMap[$schemaName])) {
+            $schemaName = $aliasMap[$schemaName];
+        }
         $exists = class_exists($schemaName, true);
         
         if ( ! $exists) {
diff --git a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/QueryTest.php b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/QueryTest.php
index 2b20e1667..0cc8ce003 100644
--- a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/QueryTest.php
+++ b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/QueryTest.php
@@ -226,5 +226,19 @@ class QueryTest extends \Doctrine\Tests\OrmFunctionalTestCase
         $this->_em->createQuery("select a from Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS\CmsArticle a")
                 ->getSingleResult();
     }
-}
 
+    public function testSupportsQueriesWithEntityAliases()
+    {
+        $this->_em->getConfiguration()->addEntityAlias('Doctrine\Tests\Models\CMS\CmsUser', 'TestAlias');
+
+        try {
+            $query = $this->_em->createQuery('UPDATE TestAlias u SET u.name = ?1');
+            $this->assertEquals('UPDATE cms_users SET name = ?', $query->getSql());
+            $query->free();
+        } catch (\Exception $e) {
+            $this->fail($e->getMessage());
+        }
+
+        $this->_em->getConfiguration()->setEntityAliasMap(array());
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file