diff --git a/lib/jekyll/generators/pagination.rb b/lib/jekyll/generators/pagination.rb
index 0cd934c5..cfcd9c30 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/generators/pagination.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/generators/pagination.rb
@@ -92,8 +92,9 @@ module Jekyll
     # Returns the pagination path as a string
     def self.paginate_path(site_config, num_page)
       return nil if num_page.nil? || num_page <= 1
-      format = File.basename(site_config['paginate_path'])
-      format.sub(':num', num_page.to_s)
+      format = site_config['paginate_path']
+      format = format.sub(':num', num_page.to_s)
+      File.basename(format)
     end
 
     # Initialize a new Pager.
diff --git a/test/test_pager.rb b/test/test_pager.rb
index 7e153ea4..990d28eb 100644
--- a/test/test_pager.rb
+++ b/test/test_pager.rb
@@ -11,6 +11,13 @@ class TestPager < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal(3, Pager.calculate_pages([1,2,3,4,5], '2'))
   end
 
+  should "determine the pagination path" do
+    assert_nil(Pager.paginate_path(Jekyll::Configuration::DEFAULTS, 1))
+    assert_equal("page2", Pager.paginate_path(Jekyll::Configuration::DEFAULTS, 2))
+    assert_nil(Pager.paginate_path(Jekyll::Configuration::DEFAULTS.merge('paginate_path' => '/blog/page-:num'), 1))
+    assert_equal("page-2", Pager.paginate_path(Jekyll::Configuration::DEFAULTS.merge('paginate_path' => '/blog/page-:num'), 2))
+  end
+
   context "pagination disabled" do
     setup do
       stub(Jekyll).configuration do