diff --git a/src/remote.c b/src/remote.c
index c2c71592e..ce3530156 100644
--- a/src/remote.c
+++ b/src/remote.c
@@ -959,6 +959,7 @@ static int remote_head_for_ref(git_remote_head **out, git_remote *remote, git_re
 	}
 
 	if ((!git_reference__is_branch(ref_name)) ||
+	    !git_remote_name(remote) ||
 	    (error = git_branch_upstream_remote(&upstream_remote, repo, ref_name)) ||
 	    git__strcmp(git_remote_name(remote), git_buf_cstr(&upstream_remote)) ||
 	    (error = git_branch_upstream_name(&upstream_name, repo, ref_name)) < 0 ||
diff --git a/tests/network/remote/remotes.c b/tests/network/remote/remotes.c
index 2cdf9226e..c00929a23 100644
--- a/tests/network/remote/remotes.c
+++ b/tests/network/remote/remotes.c
@@ -535,6 +535,16 @@ static int remote_single_branch(git_remote **out, git_repository *repo, const ch
 	return 0;
 }
 
+void test_network_remote_remotes__fetch_from_anonymous(void)
+{
+	git_remote *remote;
+
+	cl_git_pass(git_remote_create_anonymous(&remote, _repo, cl_fixture("testrepo.git"),
+						"refs/heads/*:refs/other/*"));
+	cl_git_pass(git_remote_fetch(remote, NULL, NULL, NULL));
+	git_remote_free(remote);
+}
+
 void test_network_remote_remotes__single_branch(void)
 {
 	git_clone_options opts = GIT_CLONE_OPTIONS_INIT;