diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 453baccff..7e4afc96f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -114,6 +114,20 @@ if test "$gl_single_binary" = 'symlinks'; then
 fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL([SINGLE_BINARY], [test "$gl_single_binary" != no])
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE([bold-man-page-references],
+  [AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-bold-man-page-references],
+     [When generating man pages, do not apply bold style around any
+      references like name(1) etc.])],
+  [gl_bold_manpages=yes ;
+   case $enableval in
+     no|yes) gl_bold_manpages=$enableval ;;
+     *)      AC_MSG_ERROR([bad value $enableval for bold-man-page-references.
+                           Options are: yes, no.]) ;;
+   esac],
+  [gl_bold_manpages=yes]
+)
+AM_CONDITIONAL([BOLD_MAN_REFS], [test "$gl_bold_manpages" != no])
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([gcc-warnings],
   [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-gcc-warnings@<:@=TYPE@:>@],
     [control generation of GCC warnings.  The TYPE 'no' disables
diff --git a/man/help2man b/man/help2man
index 99a1c9263..581f69ddd 100755
--- a/man/help2man
+++ b/man/help2man
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ Usage: %s [OPTION]... EXECUTABLE
  -p, --info-page=TEXT    name of Texinfo manual
  -N, --no-info           suppress pointer to Texinfo manual
  -l, --libtool           exclude the `lt-' from the program name
+ -b, --bold-refs         apply bold style to references
      --help              print this help, then exit
      --version           print version number, then exit
 
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ my $help_option = '--help';
 my $version_option = '--version';
 my $discard_stderr = 1;
 my ($opt_name, @opt_include, $opt_output, $opt_info, $opt_no_info, $opt_libtool,
-    $version_text);
+    $opt_bold_refs, $version_text);
 
 my %opt_def = (
     'n|name=s'		 => \$opt_name,
@@ -113,6 +114,7 @@ my %opt_def = (
     'p|info-page=s'	 => \$opt_info,
     'N|no-info'		 => \$opt_no_info,
     'l|libtool'		 => \$opt_libtool,
+    'b|bold-refs'	 => \$opt_bold_refs,
     'help'		 => sub { print $help_info; exit },
     'version'		 => sub { print $version_info; exit },
     'h|help-option=s'	 => \$help_option,
@@ -714,6 +716,13 @@ for my $sect (@pre, (grep !$filter{$_}, @sections), @post)
 
 	for ($include{$sect})
 	{
+            # Add bold style around referenced pages.
+            if ($opt_bold_refs)
+            {
+                # This will ignore entries already marked up (with \)
+                s/(^|\s|,)([\[\w\x83]+)\(([1-9][[:lower:]]?)\)/$1\\fB$2\\fP($3)/g;
+            }
+
 	    # Replace leading dot, apostrophe, backslash and hyphen
 	    # tokens.
 	    s/\x80/\\&./g;
diff --git a/man/local.mk b/man/local.mk
index 0822536c8..46ed35a40 100644
--- a/man/local.mk
+++ b/man/local.mk
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ run_help2man = $(SHELL) $(srcdir)/man/dummy-man
 else
 ## Graceful degradation for systems lacking perl.
 if HAVE_PERL
-run_help2man = $(PERL) -- $(srcdir)/man/help2man
+if BOLD_MAN_REFS
+help2man_OPTS=--bold-refs
+endif
+run_help2man = $(PERL) -- $(srcdir)/man/help2man $(help2man_OPTS)
 else
 run_help2man = $(SHELL) $(srcdir)/man/dummy-man
 endif