diff --git a/config/config.go b/config/config.go
index 1c47f699f..29a57a45a 100644
--- a/config/config.go
+++ b/config/config.go
@@ -122,6 +122,9 @@ func (cfg Config) Merge(ocfg Config) Config {
 	if ocfg.Initialisms != nil {
 		cfg.Initialisms = mergeLists(cfg.Initialisms, ocfg.Initialisms)
 	}
+	if ocfg.ProperNouns != nil {
+		cfg.ProperNouns = mergeLists(cfg.ProperNouns, ocfg.ProperNouns)
+	}
 	if ocfg.DotImportWhitelist != nil {
 		cfg.DotImportWhitelist = mergeLists(cfg.DotImportWhitelist, ocfg.DotImportWhitelist)
 	}
@@ -141,6 +144,7 @@ type Config struct {
 
 	Checks                  []string `toml:"checks"`
 	Initialisms             []string `toml:"initialisms"`
+	ProperNouns             []string `toml:"proper_nouns"`
 	DotImportWhitelist      []string `toml:"dot_import_whitelist"`
 	HTTPStatusCodeWhitelist []string `toml:"http_status_code_whitelist"`
 }
@@ -150,6 +154,7 @@ func (c Config) String() string {
 
 	fmt.Fprintf(buf, "Checks: %#v\n", c.Checks)
 	fmt.Fprintf(buf, "Initialisms: %#v\n", c.Initialisms)
+	fmt.Fprintf(buf, "ProperNouns: %#v\n", c.ProperNouns)
 	fmt.Fprintf(buf, "DotImportWhitelist: %#v\n", c.DotImportWhitelist)
 	fmt.Fprintf(buf, "HTTPStatusCodeWhitelist: %#v", c.HTTPStatusCodeWhitelist)
 
@@ -173,6 +178,14 @@ var DefaultConfig = Config{
 		"URL", "UTF8", "VM", "XML", "XMPP", "XSRF",
 		"XSS", "SIP", "RTP", "AMQP", "DB", "TS",
 	},
+	ProperNouns: []string{
+		"Amazon", "Android", "Ansible", "Azure", "Cloudflare",
+		"Consul", "Docker", "Elasticsearch", "Envoy", "Etcd",
+		"Grafana", "Heroku", "Istio", "Jenkins", "Jira",
+		"Kafka", "Kibana", "Kubernetes", "Linux", "Nginx",
+		"Nomad", "Postgres", "Prometheus", "Redis", "Terraform",
+		"Travis", "Vault", "Windows",
+	},
 	DotImportWhitelist: []string{
 		"simd/archsimd",
 		"github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/build",
@@ -271,6 +284,7 @@ func Load(dir string) (Config, error) {
 
 	conf.Checks = normalizeList(conf.Checks)
 	conf.Initialisms = normalizeList(conf.Initialisms)
+	conf.ProperNouns = normalizeList(conf.ProperNouns)
 	conf.DotImportWhitelist = normalizeList(conf.DotImportWhitelist)
 	conf.HTTPStatusCodeWhitelist = normalizeList(conf.HTTPStatusCodeWhitelist)
 
diff --git a/config/example.conf b/config/example.conf
index acc9d69e6..ef73f2cda 100644
--- a/config/example.conf
+++ b/config/example.conf
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ initialisms = ["ACL", "API", "ASCII", "CPU", "CSS", "DNS",
 	"UDP", "UI", "GID", "UID", "UUID", "URI",
 	"URL", "UTF8", "VM", "XML", "XMPP", "XSRF",
 	"XSS", "SIP", "RTP", "AMQP", "DB", "TS"]
+proper_nouns = ["Amazon", "Android", "Ansible", "Azure", "Cloudflare",
+	"Consul", "Docker", "Elasticsearch", "Envoy", "Etcd",
+	"Grafana", "Heroku", "Istio", "Jenkins", "Jira",
+	"Kafka", "Kibana", "Kubernetes", "Linux", "Nginx",
+	"Nomad", "Postgres", "Prometheus", "Redis", "Terraform",
+	"Travis", "Vault", "Windows"]
 dot_import_whitelist = [
     "simd/archsimd",
     "github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/build",
diff --git a/stylecheck/st1005/st1005.go b/stylecheck/st1005/st1005.go
index 477c0a118..5c51cd89d 100644
--- a/stylecheck/st1005/st1005.go
+++ b/stylecheck/st1005/st1005.go
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import (
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/analysis/code"
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/analysis/lint"
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/analysis/report"
+	"honnef.co/go/tools/config"
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/go/ir"
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/go/ir/irutil"
 	"honnef.co/go/tools/internal/passes/buildir"
@@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ var SCAnalyzer = lint.InitializeAnalyzer(&lint.Analyzer{
 	Analyzer: &analysis.Analyzer{
 		Name:     "ST1005",
 		Run:      run,
-		Requires: []*analysis.Analyzer{buildir.Analyzer},
+		Requires: []*analysis.Analyzer{buildir.Analyzer, config.Analyzer},
 	},
 	Doc: &lint.RawDocumentation{
 		Title: `Incorrectly formatted error string`,
@@ -34,8 +35,12 @@ Quoting Go Code Review Comments:
 > usually printed following other context. That is, use
 > \'fmt.Errorf("something bad")\' not \'fmt.Errorf("Something bad")\', so
 > that \'log.Printf("Reading %s: %v", filename, err)\' formats without a
-> spurious capital letter mid-message.`,
+> spurious capital letter mid-message.
+
+The set of proper nouns that are allowed to start an error string can be
+configured with the proper_nouns option.`,
 		Since:   "2019.1",
+		Options: []string{"proper_nouns"},
 		MergeIf: lint.MergeIfAny,
 	},
 })
@@ -43,6 +48,12 @@ Quoting Go Code Review Comments:
 var Analyzer = SCAnalyzer.Analyzer
 
 func run(pass *analysis.Pass) (any, error) {
+	pn := config.For(pass).ProperNouns
+	properNouns := make(map[string]bool, len(pn))
+	for _, word := range pn {
+		properNouns[word] = true
+	}
+
 	objNames := map[*ir.Package]map[string]bool{}
 	irpkg := pass.ResultOf[buildir.Analyzer].(*buildir.IR).Pkg
 	objNames[irpkg] = map[string]bool{}
@@ -115,6 +126,10 @@ func run(pass *analysis.Pass) (any, error) {
 					// Word is probably the name of a function or type in this package
 					continue
 				}
+				if properNouns[word] {
+					// Word is a known proper noun and is allowed to be capitalized
+					continue
+				}
 				// First word in error starts with a capital
 				// letter, and the word doesn't contain any other
 				// capitals, making it unlikely to be an
diff --git a/stylecheck/st1005/testdata/go1.0/CheckErrorStrings/CheckErrorStrings.go b/stylecheck/st1005/testdata/go1.0/CheckErrorStrings/CheckErrorStrings.go
index da8422b11..6a9153f56 100644
--- a/stylecheck/st1005/testdata/go1.0/CheckErrorStrings/CheckErrorStrings.go
+++ b/stylecheck/st1005/testdata/go1.0/CheckErrorStrings/CheckErrorStrings.go
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ func fn() {
 	errors.New("Foo(bar) failed")
 	errors.New("Foo(bar, baz) failed")
 	errors.New("P384 is a nice curve")
+	errors.New("Docker failed to start")
+	errors.New("Kubernetes could not schedule the pod")
+	errors.New("Travis CI blew up, oh noes")
+	errors.New("Nope is not a proper noun") //@ diag(`error strings should not be capitalized`)
 }
 
 func Write() {
diff --git a/website/content/docs/configuration/options.md b/website/content/docs/configuration/options.md
index 2cbdd4e84..76f9b88c3 100644
--- a/website/content/docs/configuration/options.md
+++ b/website/content/docs/configuration/options.md
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@ set of known initialisms can be configured with this option.
 
 Default value: `["ACL", "API", "ASCII", "CPU", "CSS", "DNS", "EOF", "GUID", "HTML", "HTTP", "HTTPS", "ID", "IP", "JSON", "QPS", "RAM", "RPC", "SLA", "SMTP", "SQL", "SSH", "TCP", "TLS", "TTL", "UDP", "UI", "GID", "UID", "UUID", "URI", "URL", "UTF8", "VM", "XML", "XMPP", "XSRF", "XSS", "SIP", "RTP", "AMQP", "DB", "TS"]`
 
+## proper_nouns {#proper_nouns}
+
+{{< check "ST1005" >}} flags error strings that start with a capital letter.
+Proper nouns are allowed to be capitalized, and this option configures the set
+of proper nouns that the check knows about. The match is case-sensitive and only
+applies to the first word of the error string.
+
+Default value: `["Amazon", "Android", "Ansible", "Azure", "Cloudflare", "Consul", "Docker", "Elasticsearch", "Envoy", "Etcd", "Grafana", "Heroku", "Istio", "Jenkins", "Jira", "Kafka", "Kibana", "Kubernetes", "Linux", "Nginx", "Nomad", "Postgres", "Prometheus", "Redis", "Terraform", "Travis", "Vault", "Windows"]`
+
 ## dot_import_whitelist {#dot_import_whitelist}
 
 By default, {{< check "ST1001" >}} forbids