diff --git a/cypress/integration/rendering/erDiagram.spec.js b/cypress/integration/rendering/erDiagram.spec.js
index 0c6eaa838..c125d6f74 100644
--- a/cypress/integration/rendering/erDiagram.spec.js
+++ b/cypress/integration/rendering/erDiagram.spec.js
@@ -200,6 +200,27 @@ describe('Entity Relationship Diagram', () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it('should render entities with attributes that begin with asterisk', () => {
+    imgSnapshotTest(
+      `
+    erDiagram
+        BOOK {
+          int         *id
+          string      name
+          varchar(99) summary
+        }
+        BOOK }o..o{ STORE : soldBy
+        STORE {
+          int         *id
+          string      name
+          varchar(50) address
+        }
+        `,
+      { loglevel: 1 }
+    );
+    cy.get('svg');
+  });
+
   it('should render entities with keys', () => {
     renderGraph(
       `
diff --git a/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md b/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
index 9fa5fa517..dd887b0ee 100644
--- a/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
+++ b/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ erDiagram
     }
 ```
 
-The `type` and `name` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits, hyphens, underscores, parentheses and square brackets. Other than that, there are no restrictions, and there is no implicit set of valid data types.
+The `type` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits, hyphens, underscores, parentheses and square brackets. The `name` values follow a similar format to `type`, but may start with an asterisk as another option to indicate an attribute is a primary key. Other than that, there are no restrictions, and there is no implicit set of valid data types.
 
 #### Attribute Keys and Comments
 
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
index 4ab09b2f8..2bf2f5b8c 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
@@ -154,11 +154,21 @@ describe('when parsing ER diagram it...', function () {
       expect(entities[entity].attributes[2].attributeName).toBe('author-ref[name](1)');
     });
 
-    it('should allow asterisk at the start of title', function () {
+    it('should allow asterisk at the start of attribute name', function () {
       const entity = 'BOOK';
       const attribute = 'string *title';
 
-      erDiagram.parser.parse(`erDiagram\n${entity}{${attribute}}`);
+      erDiagram.parser.parse(`erDiagram\n${entity}{\n${attribute}}`);
+      const entities = erDb.getEntities();
+      expect(Object.keys(entities).length).toBe(1);
+      expect(entities[entity].attributes.length).toBe(1);
+    });
+
+    it('should allow asterisks at the start of attribute declared with type and name', () => {
+      const entity = 'BOOK';
+      const attribute = 'id *the_Primary_Key';
+
+      erDiagram.parser.parse(`erDiagram\n${entity} {\n${attribute}}`);
       const entities = erDb.getEntities();
       expect(Object.keys(entities).length).toBe(1);
       expect(entities[entity].attributes.length).toBe(1);
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md b/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
index b7066ab3d..7e5fa2711 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ erDiagram
     }
 ```
 
-The `type` and `name` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits, hyphens, underscores, parentheses and square brackets. Other than that, there are no restrictions, and there is no implicit set of valid data types.
+The `type` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits, hyphens, underscores, parentheses and square brackets. The `name` values follow a similar format to `type`, but may start with an asterisk as another option to indicate an attribute is a primary key. Other than that, there are no restrictions, and there is no implicit set of valid data types.
 
 #### Attribute Keys and Comments