diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Comparators.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Comparators.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d9943d12a05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/util/Comparators.java
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.common.util;
+
+import java.util.Comparator;
+
+/**
+ * {@link Comparator}-related utility methods.
+ */
+public enum Comparators {
+    ;
+
+    /**
+     * Compare <code>d1</code> against <code>d2</code>, pushing {@value Double#NaN} at the bottom.
+     */
+    public static int compareDiscardNaN(double d1, double d2, boolean asc) {
+        if (Double.isNaN(d1)) {
+            return Double.isNaN(d2) ? 0 : 1;
+        } else if (Double.isNaN(d2)) {
+            return -1;
+        } else {
+            return asc ? Double.compare(d1, d2) : Double.compare(d2, d1);
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/MultiBucketsAggregation.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/MultiBucketsAggregation.java
index ffcae1a8181..4c7408cc5eb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/MultiBucketsAggregation.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/MultiBucketsAggregation.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticsearchIllegalArgumentException;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.text.Text;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.util.Comparators;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.Aggregation;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.Aggregations;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.metrics.MetricsAggregation;
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ public interface MultiBucketsAggregation extends Aggregation {
             public int compare(B b1, B b2) {
                 double v1 = value(b1);
                 double v2 = value(b2);
-                return asc ? Double.compare(v1, v2) : Double.compare(v2, v1);
+                return Comparators.compareDiscardNaN(v1, v2, asc);
             }
 
             private double value(B bucket) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalOrder.java b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalOrder.java
index cfa4e9f68cd..73adfe91b26 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalOrder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/terms/InternalOrder.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.terms;
 import com.google.common.primitives.Longs;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamInput;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.StreamOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.util.Comparators;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregationExecutionException;
 import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.Aggregator;
@@ -212,13 +213,7 @@ class InternalOrder extends Terms.Order {
                         double v2 = ((MetricsAggregator.MultiValue) aggregator).metric(valueName, ((InternalTerms.Bucket) o2).bucketOrd);
                         // some metrics may return NaN (eg. avg, variance, etc...) in which case we'd like to push all of those to
                         // the bottom
-                        if (Double.isNaN(v1)) {
-                            return Double.isNaN(v2) ? 0 : 1;
-                        }
-                        if (Double.isNaN(v2)) {
-                            return -1;
-                        }
-                        return asc ? Double.compare(v1, v2) : Double.compare(v2, v1);
+                        return Comparators.compareDiscardNaN(v1, v2, asc);
                     }
                 };
             }
@@ -230,13 +225,7 @@ class InternalOrder extends Terms.Order {
                     double v2 = ((MetricsAggregator.SingleValue) aggregator).metric(((InternalTerms.Bucket) o2).bucketOrd);
                     // some metrics may return NaN (eg. avg, variance, etc...) in which case we'd like to push all of those to
                     // the bottom
-                    if (Double.isNaN(v1)) {
-                        return Double.isNaN(v2) ? 0 : 1;
-                    }
-                    if (Double.isNaN(v2)) {
-                        return -1;
-                    }
-                    return asc ? Double.compare(v1, v2) : Double.compare(v2, v1);
+                    return Comparators.compareDiscardNaN(v1, v2, asc);
                 }
             };
         }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/NaNSortingTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/NaNSortingTests.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..789b8144119
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/search/aggregations/bucket/NaNSortingTests.java
@@ -0,0 +1,183 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to Elasticsearch under one or more contributor
+ * license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright
+ * ownership. Elasticsearch licenses this file to you under
+ * the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may
+ * not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket;
+
+import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.ImmutableSettings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.util.Comparators;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.Aggregation;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.histogram.Histogram;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.bucket.terms.Terms;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.metrics.MetricsAggregationBuilder;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.metrics.avg.Avg;
+import org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.metrics.stats.extended.ExtendedStats;
+import org.elasticsearch.test.ElasticsearchIntegrationTest;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentFactory.jsonBuilder;
+import static org.elasticsearch.search.aggregations.AggregationBuilders.*;
+import static org.hamcrest.core.IsNull.notNullValue;
+
+public class NaNSortingTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
+
+    @Override
+    public Settings indexSettings() {
+        return ImmutableSettings.builder()
+                .put("index.number_of_shards", between(1, 5))
+                .put("index.number_of_replicas", between(0, 1))
+                .build();
+    }
+
+    private enum SubAggregation {
+        AVG("avg") {
+            @Override
+            public MetricsAggregationBuilder<?> builder() {
+                return avg(name).field("numeric_field");
+            }
+            @Override
+            public double getValue(Aggregation aggregation) {
+                return ((Avg) aggregation).getValue();
+            }
+        },
+        VARIANCE("variance") {
+            @Override
+            public MetricsAggregationBuilder<?> builder() {
+                return extendedStats(name).field("numeric_field");
+            }
+            @Override
+            public String sortKey() {
+                return name + ".variance";
+            }
+            @Override
+            public double getValue(Aggregation aggregation) {
+                return ((ExtendedStats) aggregation).getVariance();
+            }
+        },
+        STD_DEVIATION("std_deviation"){
+            @Override
+            public MetricsAggregationBuilder<?> builder() {
+                return extendedStats(name).field("numeric_field");
+            }
+            @Override
+            public String sortKey() {
+                return name + ".std_deviation";
+            }
+            @Override
+            public double getValue(Aggregation aggregation) {
+                return ((ExtendedStats) aggregation).getStdDeviation();
+            }
+        };
+
+        SubAggregation(String name) {
+            this.name = name;
+        }
+
+        public String name;
+
+        public abstract MetricsAggregationBuilder<?> builder();
+
+        public String sortKey() {
+            return name;
+        }
+
+        public abstract double getValue(Aggregation aggregation);
+    }
+
+    @Before
+    public void init() throws Exception {
+        createIndex("idx");
+        final int numDocs = randomIntBetween(2, 10);
+        for (int i = 0; i < numDocs; ++i) {
+            final long value = randomInt(5);
+            XContentBuilder source = jsonBuilder().startObject().field("long_value", value).field("double_value", value + 0.05).field("string_value", "str_" + value);
+            if (randomBoolean()) {
+                source.field("numeric_value", randomDouble());
+            }
+            client().prepareIndex("idx", "type").setSource(source.endObject()).execute().actionGet();
+        }
+        refresh();
+        ensureSearchable();
+    }
+
+    private void assertCorrectlySorted(Terms terms, boolean asc, SubAggregation agg) {
+        assertThat(terms, notNullValue());
+        double previousValue = asc ? Double.NEGATIVE_INFINITY : Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY;
+        for (Terms.Bucket bucket : terms.getBuckets()) {
+            Aggregation sub = bucket.getAggregations().get(agg.name);
+            double value = agg.getValue(sub);
+            assertTrue(Comparators.compareDiscardNaN(previousValue, value, asc) <= 0);
+            previousValue = value;
+        }
+    }
+
+    private void assertCorrectlySorted(Histogram histo, boolean asc, SubAggregation agg) {
+        assertThat(histo, notNullValue());
+        double previousValue = asc ? Double.NEGATIVE_INFINITY : Double.POSITIVE_INFINITY;
+        for (Histogram.Bucket bucket : histo.getBuckets()) {
+            Aggregation sub = bucket.getAggregations().get(agg.name);
+            double value = agg.getValue(sub);
+            assertTrue(Comparators.compareDiscardNaN(previousValue, value, asc) <= 0);
+            previousValue = value;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public void testTerms(String fieldName) {
+        final boolean asc = randomBoolean();
+        SubAggregation agg = randomFrom(SubAggregation.values());
+        SearchResponse response = client().prepareSearch("idx")
+                .addAggregation(terms("terms").field(fieldName).subAggregation(agg.builder()).order(Terms.Order.aggregation(agg.sortKey(), asc)))
+                .execute().actionGet();
+
+        final Terms terms = response.getAggregations().get("terms");
+        assertCorrectlySorted(terms, asc, agg);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void stringTerms() {
+        testTerms("string_value");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void longTerms() {
+        testTerms("long_value");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void doubleTerms() {
+        testTerms("double_value");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void longHistogram() {
+        final boolean asc = randomBoolean();
+        SubAggregation agg = randomFrom(SubAggregation.values());
+        SearchResponse response = client().prepareSearch("idx")
+                .addAggregation(histogram("histo")
+                        .field("long_value").interval(randomIntBetween(1, 2)).subAggregation(agg.builder()).order(Histogram.Order.aggregation(agg.sortKey(), asc)))
+                .execute().actionGet();
+
+        final Histogram histo = response.getAggregations().get("histo");
+        assertCorrectlySorted(histo, asc, agg);
+    }
+
+}