diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION b/release-notes/VERSION
index 3a422bf75c..fe27ea4450 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Project: jackson-databind
  (reported by Mark W)
 #1248: `Annotated` returns raw type in place of Generic Type in 2.7.x
  (reported by Andrew J, apjoseph@github)
+#1253: Problem with context handling for `TokenBuffer`, field name
 
 2.7.4 (29-Apr-2016)
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/util/TokenBuffer.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/util/TokenBuffer.java
index 0c98e87774..9a375e9c9c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/util/TokenBuffer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/util/TokenBuffer.java
@@ -621,6 +621,7 @@ public void close() throws IOException {
     @Override
     public final void writeStartArray() throws IOException
     {
+        _writeContext.writeValue();
         _append(JsonToken.START_ARRAY);
         _writeContext = _writeContext.createChildArrayContext();
     }
@@ -639,6 +640,7 @@ public final void writeEndArray() throws IOException
     @Override
     public final void writeStartObject() throws IOException
     {
+        _writeContext.writeValue();
         _append(JsonToken.START_OBJECT);
         _writeContext = _writeContext.createChildObjectContext();
     }
@@ -657,15 +659,15 @@ public final void writeEndObject() throws IOException
     @Override
     public final void writeFieldName(String name) throws IOException
     {
-        _append(JsonToken.FIELD_NAME, name);
         _writeContext.writeFieldName(name);
+        _append(JsonToken.FIELD_NAME, name);
     }
 
     @Override
     public void writeFieldName(SerializableString name) throws IOException
     {
-        _append(JsonToken.FIELD_NAME, name);
         _writeContext.writeFieldName(name.getValue());
+        _append(JsonToken.FIELD_NAME, name);
     }
     
     /*