diff --git a/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh b/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
index f071a8fdd1..8a5714912d 100755
--- a/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
+++ b/t/t4018-diff-funcname.sh
@@ -125,6 +125,10 @@ test_expect_success 'perl pattern is not distracted by sub within POD' '
 	test_expect_funcname "=head" perl
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'perl pattern gets full line of POD header' '
+	test_expect_funcname "=head1 SYNOPSIS\$" perl
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'custom pattern' '
 	test_config diff.java.funcname "!static
 !String
diff --git a/userdiff.c b/userdiff.c
index 2cca0af8e2..32ead9654a 100644
--- a/userdiff.c
+++ b/userdiff.c
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ PATTERNS("perl",
 	 "^package .*;\n"
 	 "^sub .* \\{\n"
 	 "^[A-Z]+ \\{\n"	/* BEGIN, END, ... */
-	 "^=head[0-9] ",	/* POD */
+	 "^=head[0-9] .*",	/* POD */
 	 /* -- */
 	 "[[:alpha:]_'][[:alnum:]_']*"
 	 "|0[xb]?[0-9a-fA-F_]*"