diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 645f8b3f7..9d839a25a 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -169,8 +169,8 @@ def get_model_meta(path):
         raise IOError("Could not read meta.json from %s" % meta_path)
     meta = read_json(meta_path)
     for setting in ['lang', 'name', 'version']:
-        if setting not in meta:
-            raise ValueError('No %s setting found in model meta.json' % setting)
+        if setting not in meta or not meta[setting]:
+            raise ValueError('No valid '%s' setting found in model meta.json' % setting)
     return meta