diff --git a/railties/CHANGELOG.md b/railties/CHANGELOG.md
index 2595f83070..2243771f49 100644
--- a/railties/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/railties/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+*   Make railsrc file location xdg-specification compliant
+
+    `rails new` will now look for the default `railsrc` file at
+    `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rails/railsrc` (or `~/.config/rails/railsrc` if
+    `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is not set).  If this file does not exist, `rails new`
+    will fall back to `~/.railsrc`.
+
+    The fallback behaviour means this does not cause any breaking changes.
+
+    *Nick Wolf*
+
 *   Deprecate `config.active_support.use_sha1_digests`
 
     `config.active_support.use_sha1_digests` is deprecated. It is replaced with `config.active_support.hash_digest_class` which allows setting the desired Digest instead. The Rails version defaults have been updated to use this new method as well so the behavior there is unchanged.
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/USAGE b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/USAGE
index 28df6ebf44..ea2285761f 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/USAGE
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/USAGE
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ Description:
     directory structure and configuration at the path you specify.
 
     You can specify extra command-line arguments to be used every time
-    'rails new' runs in the .railsrc configuration file in your home directory.
+    'rails new' runs in the .railsrc configuration file in your home directory,
+    or in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rails/railsrc if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set.
 
     Note that the arguments specified in the .railsrc file don't affect the
     defaults values shown above in this help message.
diff --git a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
index 4ccba0d474..2c20b1c6cb 100644
--- a/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
+++ b/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator.rb
@@ -606,7 +606,13 @@ module Rails
       end
 
       def self.default_rc_file
-        File.expand_path("~/.railsrc")
+        xdg_config_home = ENV["XDG_CONFIG_HOME"].presence || "~/.config"
+        xdg_railsrc = File.expand_path("rails/railsrc", xdg_config_home)
+        if File.exist?(xdg_railsrc)
+          xdg_railsrc
+        else
+          File.expand_path("~/.railsrc")
+        end
       end
 
       private
diff --git a/railties/test/generators/argv_scrubber_test.rb b/railties/test/generators/argv_scrubber_test.rb
index 9ef61dc978..f72cb353e0 100644
--- a/railties/test/generators/argv_scrubber_test.rb
+++ b/railties/test/generators/argv_scrubber_test.rb
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@ require "active_support/test_case"
 require "active_support/testing/autorun"
 require "rails/generators/rails/app/app_generator"
 require "tempfile"
+require "fileutils"
+require "env_helpers"
 
 module Rails
   module Generators
@@ -12,6 +14,8 @@ module Rails
       # current behavior of the ARGVScrubber, they do not mean that the class
       # *must* act this way, I just want to prevent regressions.
 
+      include EnvHelpers
+
       def test_version
         ["-v", "--version"].each do |str|
           scrubber = ARGVScrubber.new [str]
@@ -56,6 +60,17 @@ module Rails
         assert_equal [], args
       end
 
+      def test_default_rc_file_with_xdg_config_home
+        Dir.mktmpdir do |dir|
+          rc_file = File.join(dir, "rails/railsrc")
+          FileUtils.mkdir_p(File.dirname(rc_file))
+          FileUtils.touch(rc_file)
+          switch_env("XDG_CONFIG_HOME", dir) do
+            assert_equal rc_file, ARGVScrubber.default_rc_file
+          end
+        end
+      end
+
       def test_new_homedir_rc
         file = Tempfile.new "myrcfile"
         file.puts "--hello-world"