diff --git a/support/scripts/kconfiglib.py b/support/scripts/kconfiglib.py
index 0704cc0573..e40947ce21 100644
--- a/support/scripts/kconfiglib.py
+++ b/support/scripts/kconfiglib.py
@@ -2074,7 +2074,7 @@ set_re   = re.compile(r"CONFIG_(\w+)=(.*)")
 unset_re = re.compile(r"# CONFIG_(\w+) is not set")
 
 # Regular expression for finding $-references to symbols in strings
-sym_ref_re = re.compile(r"\$[A-Za-z_]+")
+sym_ref_re = re.compile(r"\$[A-Za-z_][0-9A-Za-z_]*")
 
 # Integers representing symbol types
 UNKNOWN, BOOL, TRISTATE, STRING, HEX, INT = range(0, 6)