diff --git a/app/models/project.rb b/app/models/project.rb
index fdbc84474ed..9228ccab718 100644
--- a/app/models/project.rb
+++ b/app/models/project.rb
@@ -262,7 +262,23 @@ class Project < ActiveRecord::Base
     #
     # Returns a Project, or nil if no project could be found.
     def find_with_namespace(path)
-      where_paths_in([path]).reorder(nil).take
+      namespace_path, project_path = path.split('/', 2)
+
+      return unless namespace_path && project_path
+
+      namespace_path = connection.quote(namespace_path)
+      project_path = connection.quote(project_path)
+
+      # On MySQL we want to ensure the ORDER BY uses a case-sensitive match so
+      # any literal matches come first, for this we have to use "BINARY".
+      # Without this there's still no guarantee in what order MySQL will return
+      # rows.
+      binary = Gitlab::Database.mysql? ? 'BINARY' : ''
+
+      order_sql = "(CASE WHEN #{binary} namespaces.path = #{namespace_path} " \
+        "AND #{binary} projects.path = #{project_path} THEN 0 ELSE 1 END)"
+
+      where_paths_in([path]).reorder(order_sql).take
     end
 
     # Builds a relation to find multiple projects by their full paths.
diff --git a/spec/models/project_spec.rb b/spec/models/project_spec.rb
index fedab1f913b..53c8408633c 100644
--- a/spec/models/project_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/project_spec.rb
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ describe Project, models: true do
     end
   end
 
-  describe :find_with_namespace do
+  describe '.find_with_namespace' do
     context 'with namespace' do
       before do
         @group = create :group, name: 'gitlab'
@@ -231,6 +231,22 @@ describe Project, models: true do
       it { expect(Project.find_with_namespace('GitLab/GitlabHQ')).to eq(@project) }
       it { expect(Project.find_with_namespace('gitlab-ci')).to be_nil }
     end
+
+    context 'when multiple projects using a similar name exist' do
+      let(:group) { create(:group, name: 'gitlab') }
+
+      let!(:project1) do
+        create(:empty_project, name: 'gitlab1', path: 'gitlab', namespace: group)
+      end
+
+      let!(:project2) do
+        create(:empty_project, name: 'gitlab2', path: 'GITLAB', namespace: group)
+      end
+
+      it 'returns the row where the path matches literally' do
+        expect(Project.find_with_namespace('gitlab/GITLAB')).to eq(project2)
+      end
+    end
   end
 
   describe :to_param do