diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ed9db3995..aa9acdb3f 100755
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ endif
 ifndef ALT_RELEASE
 # Default release labeling.  (This may fail and give inconsistent results due to the fact that
 # travis does a shallow clone.)
-LATEST_RELEASE=$(shell git tag | grep RELEASE_ | sort | tail -1)
+LATEST_RELEASE=$(shell git tag | grep RELEASE_ | sort -n -t V -k 2,2 | tail -1)
 # use egrep to count lines instead of wc to avoid whitespace error on Mac
 COMMITS_SINCE_RELEASE=$(shell git log --oneline $(LATEST_RELEASE)..HEAD | egrep -c .)
 ifneq ($(COMMITS_SINCE_RELEASE),0)
diff --git a/scripts/common.py b/scripts/common.py
index 297be00d1..c1ed333b0 100644
--- a/scripts/common.py
+++ b/scripts/common.py
@@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ def get_version():
         alt_release = os.getenv("ALT_RELEASE")
         if alt_release == None:
           # Default release labeling based on commits since last release tag
-          latest_release = subprocess.check_output('git tag | grep RELEASE_ | sort | tail -1', shell=True).strip()
+          latest_release = subprocess.check_output('git tag | grep RELEASE_ | sort -n -t V -k 2,2 | tail -1', shell=True).strip()
           commits_since_release = subprocess.check_output('git log --oneline '+latest_release.decode("utf-8")+'..HEAD | wc -l', shell=True).decode("utf-8").strip()
         else:
           # Alternate release labeling with fork name (in ALT_RELEASE env var) plus branch