diff --git a/packages/animations/browser/src/dsl/animation_ast_builder.ts b/packages/animations/browser/src/dsl/animation_ast_builder.ts
index 958232d88c..c6ecbef22f 100644
--- a/packages/animations/browser/src/dsl/animation_ast_builder.ts
+++ b/packages/animations/browser/src/dsl/animation_ast_builder.ts
@@ -90,6 +90,11 @@ export class AnimationAstBuilderVisitor implements AnimationDslVisitor {
     let depCount = context.depCount = 0;
     const states: StateAst[] = [];
     const transitions: TransitionAst[] = [];
+    if (metadata.name.charAt(0) == '@') {
+      context.errors.push(
+          'animation triggers cannot be prefixed with an `@` sign (e.g. trigger(\'@foo\', [...]))');
+    }
+
     metadata.definitions.forEach(def => {
       this._resetContextStyleTimingState(context);
       if (def.type == AnimationMetadataType.State) {
diff --git a/packages/animations/browser/test/dsl/animation_spec.ts b/packages/animations/browser/test/dsl/animation_spec.ts
index 77a4f16569..f5e3fd28b8 100644
--- a/packages/animations/browser/test/dsl/animation_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/animations/browser/test/dsl/animation_spec.ts
@@ -119,6 +119,14 @@ export function main() {
            expect(() => validateAndThrowAnimationSequence(steps)).not.toThrow();
          });
 
+      it('should not allow triggers to be defined with a prefixed `@` symbol', () => {
+        const steps = trigger('@foo', []);
+
+        expect(() => validateAndThrowAnimationSequence(steps))
+            .toThrowError(
+                /animation triggers cannot be prefixed with an `@` sign \(e\.g\. trigger\('@foo', \[...\]\)\)/);
+      });
+
       it('should throw an error if an animation time is invalid', () => {
         const steps = [animate('500xs', style({opacity: 1}))];