diff --git a/docs/src/lib/remote-links.md b/docs/src/lib/remote-links.md
index 0b6bdd1812..d2fe506f05 100644
--- a/docs/src/lib/remote-links.md
+++ b/docs/src/lib/remote-links.md
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ This means that usually it is not necessary to specify either explicitly in the
 The rules are as follows:
 
 * If `repo` _is not_ specified, it is essentially [determined like any other remote link](@ref remotes-for-files), by trying to figure out the repository that contains the `root` path argument of [`makedocs`](@ref) (defaulting to the directory of the `make.jl` script; usually the `docs/` directory).
-  The [`Remote`](@ref Remotes.Remote) object will one of the `remotes`, which in turn may have been determined automatically via the `origin` URL of the containing Git repository.
+  The [`Remote`](@ref Remotes.Remote) object will be one of the `remotes`, which in turn may have been determined automatically via the `origin` URL of the containing Git repository, or the 'remotes.pushDefault' remote's URL if `origin` does not exist.
 
 * If `repo` _is_ specified, but the `remotes` for the repository root is not, `repo` will function as a `remotes` entry for the repository root.
   This is so that it would not be necessary to specify the same argument twice (i.e. once for general repository links, once for file links).
diff --git a/src/utilities/utilities.jl b/src/utilities/utilities.jl
index 1abbdb337e..ef2fe09118 100644
--- a/src/utilities/utilities.jl
+++ b/src/utilities/utilities.jl
@@ -421,7 +421,45 @@ const julia_remote = Remotes.GitHub("JuliaLang", "julia")
 """
 Stores the memoized results of [`getremote`](@ref).
 """
-const GIT_REMOTE_CACHE = Dict{String,Union{Remotes.Remote,Nothing}}()
+const GIT_REMOTENAME_CACHE = Dict{String, String}()
+const GIT_REMOTEURL_CACHE = Dict{String,Union{Remotes.Remote,Nothing}}()
+
+"""
+$(TYPEDSIGNATURES)
+
+Determines the GitHub remote of a directory, returninf 'origin' if that remote  exists,
+and otherwise returning the result of `git config --get remote.pushDefault`.
+If neither exist, throw an error.
+
+The results for a given directory are memoized in [`GIT_REMOTENAME_CACHE`](@ref), since calling
+`git` is expensive and it is often called on the same directory over and over again.
+"""
+function getremotename(dir::AbstractString)
+    isdir(dir) || return nothing
+    return get!(GIT_REMOTENAME_CACHE, dir) do
+        try
+            originurl = readchomp(setenv(`$(git()) config --get remote.origin.url`; dir=dir))
+            @assert !isempty(originurl)
+            return "origin"
+        catch; end
+
+        try
+            pushdefault = readchomp(setenv(`$(git()) config --get remote.pushDefault`; dir=dir))
+            @assert !isempty(pushdefault)
+            @warn "Remote 'origin' not found. Using `git config --get remote.pushDefault` instead, which is set to '$(pushdefault)'."
+            return pushdefault
+        catch ; end
+        
+
+        # If neither was found, throw an error.
+        try
+            @assert false
+        catch e
+            @warn "Neither remote 'origin' nor 'remotes.pushDefault' found" exception=(e, catch_backtrace())
+            ""
+        end
+    end
+end
 
 function parse_remote_url(remote::AbstractString)
     # TODO: we only match for GitHub repositories automatically. Could we engineer a
@@ -435,24 +473,25 @@ end
 """
 $(TYPEDSIGNATURES)
 
-Determines the GitHub remote of a directory by checking `remote.origin.url` of the
-repository. Returns a [`Remotes.GitHub`](@ref), or `nothing` is something has gone wrong
-(e.g. it's run on a directory not in a Git repo, or `origin.url` points to a non-GitHub
-remote).
+Determines the GitHub remote of a directory by checking `remote.\$(remotename).url` of the
+repository. `remotename` is determined by [`getremotename`](@ref). Returns a [`Remotes.GitHub`](@ref),
+or `nothing` is something has gone wrong (e.g. it's run on a directory not in a Git repo, or the url
+points to a non-GitHub remote).
 
-The results for a given directory are memoized in [`GIT_REMOTE_CACHE`](@ref), since calling
+The results for a given directory are memoized in [`GIT_REMOTEURL_CACHE`](@ref), since calling
 `git` is expensive and it is often called on the same directory over and over again.
 """
 function getremote(dir::AbstractString)
     isdir(dir) || return nothing
-    return get!(GIT_REMOTE_CACHE, dir) do
-        remote = try
-            readchomp(setenv(`$(git()) config --get remote.origin.url`; dir=dir))
+    return get!(GIT_REMOTEURL_CACHE, dir) do
+        remotename = getremotename(dir)
+        remoteurl = try
+            readchomp(setenv(`$(git()) config --get remote.$(remotename).url`; dir=dir))
         catch e
-            @debug "git config --get remote.origin.url failed" exception=(e, catch_backtrace())
+            @debug "git config --get remote.$(remotename).url failed" exception=(e, catch_backtrace())
             ""
         end
-        return parse_remote_url(remote)
+        return parse_remote_url(remoteurl)
     end
 end
 
@@ -616,7 +655,7 @@ it out automatically.
 `root` is the the directory where `git` gets run. `varname` is just informational and used
 to construct the warning messages.
 """
-function git_remote_head_branch(varname, root; remotename = "origin", fallback = "master")
+function git_remote_head_branch(varname, root; fallback = "master")
     gitcmd = git(nothrow = true)
     if gitcmd === nothing
         @warn """
@@ -628,8 +667,9 @@ function git_remote_head_branch(varname, root; remotename = "origin", fallback =
     end
     # We need to do addenv() here to merge the new variables with the environment set by
     # Git_jll and the git() function.
+    remotename = getremotename(root)
     cmd = addenv(
-        setenv(`$gitcmd remote show $(remotename)`, dir=root),
+        setenv(`$gitcmd remote show $remotename`, dir=root),
         "GIT_TERMINAL_PROMPT" => "0",
         "GIT_SSH_COMMAND" => get(ENV, "GIT_SSH_COMMAND", "ssh -o \"BatchMode yes\""),
     )
diff --git a/test/repolinks.jl b/test/repolinks.jl
index e52594d250..89ae4ba65a 100644
--- a/test/repolinks.jl
+++ b/test/repolinks.jl
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 module RepoLinkTests
 using Test
 using Random: randstring
-using Documenter: Documenter, Remotes, git, edit_url, source_url, MarkdownAST, walk_navpages, expand
+using Documenter: Documenter, Remotes, git, edit_url, source_url, MarkdownAST, walk_navpages, expand, getremote, getremotename, GIT_REMOTENAME_CACHE
 using Documenter.HTMLWriter: render_article, HTMLContext, HTML
 using Markdown
 include("TestUtilities.jl"); using Main.TestUtilities
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@ extrepo_commit = init_git_repo(
 # A repository outside of the main repository (without remote)
 extrepo_noremote = joinpath(tmproot, "extrepo_noremote")
 extrepo_noremote_commit = init_git_repo(create_defaultfiles, extrepo_noremote; remote=nothing)
+# A repository with a repo that's not called 'origin'
+nonoriginrepo = joinpath(tmproot, "nonoriginrepo")
+nonoriginrepo_commit = init_git_repo(
+    create_defaultfiles, nonoriginrepo;
+    remote=("nonorigin", "git@github.com:TestOrg/NonoriginRepo.jl.git")
+)
+
 # Just a directory outside of the main repository
 extdirectory = joinpath(tmproot, "extdirectory")
 mkpath(extdirectory)
@@ -218,6 +225,18 @@ end
     @test doc.user.remote == Remotes.GitHub("AlternateOrg", "AlternateRepo.jl")
 end
 
+@testset "Get remotename and remoteurl" begin
+    @test getremotename(mainrepo) == "origin"
+    @test getremote(mainrepo) == Remotes.GitHub("TestOrg", "TestRepo.jl")
+    @test_warn "Neither remote" getremotename(nonoriginrepo)
+    @test getremotename(nonoriginrepo) == ""
+    run(setenv(`$(git()) config --add remote.pushDefault nonorigin`; dir=nonoriginrepo))
+    pop!(GIT_REMOTENAME_CACHE, nonoriginrepo)
+    @test Documenter.getremotename(nonoriginrepo) == "nonorigin"
+    @test Documenter.getremote(nonoriginrepo) == Documenter.Remotes.GitHub("TestOrg","NonoriginRepo.jl")
+end
+
+
 # Setting both the `repo` and also overriding the same path in `remotes` should error
 @test_throws Exception Documenter.Document(
     root = joinpath(mainrepo, "docs"),