diff --git a/cmake/version.cmake b/cmake/version.cmake
index 5a802b4050bc..24afa098092a 100644
--- a/cmake/version.cmake
+++ b/cmake/version.cmake
@@ -1,6 +1,25 @@
+
 math(EXPR NCS_VERSION_CODE "(${NCS_VERSION_MAJOR} << 16) + (${NCS_VERSION_MINOR} << 8)  + (${NCS_VERSION_PATCH})")
 
 # to_hex is made available by ${ZEPHYR_BASE}/cmake/hex.cmake
 to_hex(${NCS_VERSION_CODE} NCS_VERSION_NUMBER)
 
+find_package(Git QUIET)
+if(GIT_FOUND)
+  execute_process(
+    COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --abbrev=12 --always
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY                ${ZEPHYR_BASE}/../nrf
+    OUTPUT_VARIABLE                  NCS_BUILD_VERSION_NAME
+    OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
+    ERROR_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
+    ERROR_VARIABLE                   stderr
+    RESULT_VARIABLE                  return_code
+  )
+  if(return_code)
+    message(STATUS "git describe failed: ${stderr}")
+  elseif(NOT "${stderr}" STREQUAL "")
+    message(STATUS "git describe warned: ${stderr}")
+  endif()
+endif()
+
 configure_file(${NRF_DIR}/ncs_version.h.in ${ZEPHYR_BINARY_DIR}/include/generated/ncs_version.h)
diff --git a/ncs_version.h.in b/ncs_version.h.in
index 19ef2143446b..3f2b990cccf9 100644
--- a/ncs_version.h.in
+++ b/ncs_version.h.in
@@ -10,4 +10,6 @@
 #define NCS_PATCHLEVEL      @NCS_VERSION_PATCH@
 #define NCS_VERSION_STRING  "@NCS_VERSION@"
 
+#define NCS_BUILD_VERSION @NCS_BUILD_VERSION_NAME@
+
 #endif /* _NCS_VERSION_H_ */