diff --git a/CHANGES.current b/CHANGES.current
index d925e5ffc..e114acd09 100644
--- a/CHANGES.current
+++ b/CHANGES.current
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ See the RELEASENOTES file for a summary of changes in each release.
 Version 3.0.9 (in progress)
 ===========================
 
+2016-01-12: olly
+	    [Javascript] Look for "nodejs" as well as "node", as it's packaged
+	    as the former on Debian.
+
 2016-01-12: olly
 	    [Javascript] For v8 >= 4.3.0, use V8_MAJOR_VERSION.
 	    Fixes https://github.com/swig/swig/issues/561.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 9dfdcbd9b..8b537461c 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1422,7 +1422,7 @@ else
   # Look for Node.js which is the default Javascript engine
   #----------------------------------------------------------------
 
-  AC_CHECK_PROGS(NODEJS, node)
+  AC_CHECK_PROGS(NODEJS, [nodejs node])
 
   if test -n "$NODEJS"; then
     # node-gyp is needed to run the test-suite/examples