diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a294b44599c..07257984719 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 * [#8115](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/8115): Fix false negative for `Lint::FormatParameterMismatch` when argument contains formatting. ([@andrykonchin][])
 * [#8131](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/pull/8131): Fix false positive for `Style/RedundantRegexpEscape` with escaped delimiters. ([@owst][])
 * [#8124](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/8124): Fix a false positive for `Lint/FormatParameterMismatch` when using named parameters with escaped `%`. ([@koic][])
+* [#7979](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/7979): Fix "uninitialized constant DidYouMean::SpellChecker" exception. ([@bquorning][])
 * [#8098](https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/8098): Fix a false positive for `Style/RedundantRegexpCharacterClass` when using interpolations. ([@owst][])
 
 ## 0.85.1 (2020-06-07)
diff --git a/lib/rubocop/name_similarity.rb b/lib/rubocop/name_similarity.rb
index 917d87bd2f8..8cf0b9a1161 100644
--- a/lib/rubocop/name_similarity.rb
+++ b/lib/rubocop/name_similarity.rb
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ def find_similar_name(target_name, names)
     end
 
     def find_similar_names(target_name, names)
+      # DidYouMean::SpellChecker is not available in all versions of Ruby, and
+      # even on versions where it *is* available (>= 2.3), it is not always
+      # required correctly. So we do a feature check first.
+      # See: https://github.com/rubocop-hq/rubocop/issues/7979
+      return [] unless defined?(DidYouMean::SpellChecker)
+
       names = names.dup
       names.delete(target_name)