diff --git a/spec/std/time/location_spec.cr b/spec/std/time/location_spec.cr
index bcf7595cffd8..78e27a230fde 100644
--- a/spec/std/time/location_spec.cr
+++ b/spec/std/time/location_spec.cr
@@ -67,9 +67,7 @@ class Time::Location
         with_zoneinfo do
           Location.load("UTC").should eq Location::UTC
           Location.load("").should eq Location::UTC
-
-          # Etc/UTC could be pointing to anything
-          Location.load("Etc/UTC").should_not eq Location::UTC
+          Location.load("Etc/UTC").should eq Location::UTC
         end
       end
 
diff --git a/src/time/location.cr b/src/time/location.cr
index d84c1ab14218..7e0e8f160cb9 100644
--- a/src/time/location.cr
+++ b/src/time/location.cr
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ class Time::Location
   #
   # *name* is understood to be a location name in the IANA Time
   # Zone database, such as `"America/New_York"`. As special cases,
-  # `"UTC"` and empty string (`""`) return `Location::UTC`, and
+  # `"UTC"`, `"Etc/UTC"` and empty string (`""`) return `Location::UTC`, and
   # `"Local"` returns `Location.local`.
   #
   # The implementation uses a list of system-specific paths to look for a time
@@ -277,7 +277,11 @@ class Time::Location
   # `Location`, unless the time zone database has been updated in between.
   def self.load(name : String) : Location
     case name
-    when "", "UTC"
+    when "", "UTC", "Etc/UTC"
+      # `UTC` is a special identifier, empty string represents a fallback mechanism.
+      # `Etc/UTC` is technically a tzdb identifier which could potentially point to anything.
+      # But we map it to `Location::UTC` directly for convenience which allows it to work
+      # without a copy of the database.
       UTC
     when "Local"
       local
@@ -339,7 +343,7 @@ class Time::Location
   # The environment variable `ENV["TZ"]` is consulted for finding the time zone
   # to use.
   #
-  # * `"UTC"` and empty string (`""`) return `Location::UTC`
+  # * `"UTC"`, `"Etc/UTC"` and empty string (`""`) return `Location::UTC`
   # * Any other value (such as `"Europe/Berlin"`) is tried to be resolved using
   #   `Location.load`.
   # * If `ENV["TZ"]` is not set, the system's local time zone data will be used
@@ -348,7 +352,7 @@ class Time::Location
   #   `Location::UTC` is returned.
   def self.load_local : Location
     case tz = ENV["TZ"]?
-    when "", "UTC"
+    when "", "UTC", "Etc/UTC"
       return UTC
     when Nil
       if localtime = Crystal::System::Time.load_localtime