diff --git a/hashmap/hashmap.mbt b/hashmap/hashmap.mbt
index 33bf52ae8..8af3da958 100644
--- a/hashmap/hashmap.mbt
+++ b/hashmap/hashmap.mbt
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
 /// ```
 #as_free_fn
 pub fn[K, V] HashMap::new(capacity? : Int = 8) -> HashMap[K, V] {
-  let capacity = capacity.next_power_of_two()
+  let capacity = capacity.next_power_of_two().max(8)
   {
     size: 0,
     capacity,
diff --git a/hashmap/hashmap_test.mbt b/hashmap/hashmap_test.mbt
index 8775fb293..b3e571eda 100644
--- a/hashmap/hashmap_test.mbt
+++ b/hashmap/hashmap_test.mbt
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ test "new" {
   inspect(m.length(), content="0")
 }
 
+///|
+test "new minimum capacity" {
+  let m : @hashmap.HashMap[Int, Int] = @hashmap.new(capacity=2)
+  inspect(m.capacity(), content="8")
+}
+
 ///|
 test "get" {
   let m = @hashmap.new()