diff --git a/app/utils/importFile.js b/app/utils/importFile.js
index 5ace59ce5..9afff572d 100644
--- a/app/utils/importFile.js
+++ b/app/utils/importFile.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // @flow
 import Document from 'models/Document';
 import DocumentsStore from 'stores/DocumentsStore';
+import parseTitle from 'shared/utils/parseTitle';
 
 type Options = {
   file: File,
@@ -19,13 +20,27 @@ const importFile = async ({
     const reader = new FileReader();
 
     reader.onload = async ev => {
-      const text = ev.target.result;
+      let text = ev.target.result;
+      let title;
+
+      // If the first line of the imported file looks like a markdown heading
+      // then we can use this as the document title
+      if (text.trim().startsWith('# ')) {
+        const result = parseTitle(text);
+        title = result.title;
+        text = text.replace(`# ${title}\n`, '');
+
+        // otherwise, just use the filename without the extension as our best guess
+      } else {
+        title = file.name.replace(/\.[^/.]+$/, '');
+      }
 
       let document = new Document(
         {
           parentDocumentId: documentId,
           collectionId,
           text,
+          title,
         },
         documents
       );