diff --git a/menuinst/_legacy/win32.py b/menuinst/_legacy/win32.py
index 4fda343f..dffbce90 100644
--- a/menuinst/_legacy/win32.py
+++ b/menuinst/_legacy/win32.py
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ def substitute_env_variables(text, dir):
     for a, b in (
         (u'${PREFIX}', env_prefix),
         (u'${ROOT_PREFIX}', root_prefix),
-        (u'${DISTRIBUTION_NAME}', os.path.split(root_prefix)[-1].capitalize()),
+        (u'${DISTRIBUTION_NAME}', os.path.split(root_prefix)[-1]),
         (
             u'${PYTHON_SCRIPTS}',
             os.path.normpath(join(env_prefix, u'Scripts')).replace(u"\\", u"/"),
diff --git a/news/153-capitalization b/news/153-capitalization
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4ba9148a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/153-capitalization
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+### Enhancements
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Bug fixes
+
+* Do not capitalize `${DISTRIBUTION_NAME}` in v1-style `menuinst` JSON documents. (#153)
+
+### Deprecations
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Docs
+
+* <news item>
+
+### Other
+
+* <news item>