diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/create.js b/lib/plugins/create/create.js
index 8da0f8a30..409386721 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/create/create.js
+++ b/lib/plugins/create/create.js
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ class Create {
     const boilerplatePath = this.options
       .path && this.options.path.length ? this.options.path : null;
     const serviceName = this.options.name && this.options.name.length ? this.options.name : null;
+    const templateSrcDir = path.join(this.serverless.config.serverlessPath,
+      'plugins', 'create', 'templates', this.options.template);
 
     // create (if not yet present) and chdir into the directory for the service
     if (boilerplatePath) {
@@ -89,9 +91,7 @@ class Create {
       process.chdir(newPath);
     } else {
       // ensure no template file already exists in cwd that we may overwrite
-      const templateFullFilePaths = this.serverless.utils.walkDirSync(path.join(
-        this.serverless.config.serverlessPath, 'plugins', 'create', 'templates',
-        this.options.template));
+      const templateFullFilePaths = this.serverless.utils.walkDirSync(templateSrcDir);
 
       templateFullFilePaths.forEach(ffp => {
         const filename = path.basename(ffp);
@@ -111,8 +111,12 @@ class Create {
     // copy template files recursively to cwd
     // while keeping template file tree
     try {
-      this.serverless.utils.copyDirContentsSync(path.join(this.serverless.config.serverlessPath,
-       'plugins', 'create', 'templates', this.options.template), process.cwd());
+      this.serverless.utils.copyDirContentsSync(templateSrcDir, process.cwd());
+
+      // NPM renames .gitignore to .npmignore on publish so we have to rename it.
+      if (this.serverless.utils.fileExistsSync(`${process.cwd()}/gitignore`)) {
+        fse.rename(`${process.cwd()}/gitignore`, `${process.cwd()}/.gitignore`);
+      }
     } catch (err) {
       const errorMessage = [
         'Error unable to create a service in this directory. ',
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-csharp/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-csharp/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-csharp/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-csharp/gitignore
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-gradle/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-gradle/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-gradle/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-gradle/gitignore
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-maven/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-maven/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-maven/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-java-maven/gitignore
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-nodejs/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-nodejs/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-nodejs/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-nodejs/gitignore
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-python/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-python/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-python/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-python/gitignore
diff --git a/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-scala-sbt/.gitignore b/lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-scala-sbt/gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-scala-sbt/.gitignore
rename to lib/plugins/create/templates/aws-scala-sbt/gitignore