diff --git a/packages/livedata/livedata_common.js b/packages/livedata/livedata_common.js
index c9af4b81dc..a919cd8cae 100644
--- a/packages/livedata/livedata_common.js
+++ b/packages/livedata/livedata_common.js
@@ -122,6 +122,16 @@ Meteor._CurrentInvocation = new Meteor.EnvironmentVariable;
 Meteor.Error = function (error, reason, details) {
   var self = this;
 
+  // Meteor.Error is defined on both client and server, but it only
+  // has a stack trace on the server. Luckily, Error.captureStackTrace
+  // achieves this on V8. Googling and experimentation found no way to
+  // capture stack traces on all browsers, so it seems that this is
+  // not a viable general pattern for creating custom Error
+  // classes. If we need to do that, we'd probably be best off setting
+  // a 'type' property on the Error object instead.
+  if (Error.captureStackTrace)
+    Error.captureStackTrace(self, Meteor.Error);
+
   // Currently, a numeric code, likely similar to a HTTP code (eg,
   // 404, 500). That is likely to change though.
   self.error = error;
@@ -138,6 +148,21 @@ Meteor.Error = function (error, reason, details) {
   // never expect this to be shown to end users, only developers, so
   // it doesn't need to be pretty.)
   self.details = details;
+
+  // This is what gets displayed at the top of a stack trace. Current
+  // format is "[404]" (if no reason is set) or "File not found [404]"
+  if (self.reason)
+    self.message = self.reason + ' [' + self.error + ']';
+  else
+    self.message = '[' + self.error + ']';
 };
 
-Meteor.Error.prototype = new Error;
+// http://davidshariff.com/blog/javascript-inheritance-patterns/
+var inherits = function (child, parent) {
+  var tmp = function () {};
+  tmp.prototype = parent.prototype;
+  child.prototype = new tmp;
+  child.prototype.constructor = child;
+};
+
+inherits(Meteor.Error, Error);
\ No newline at end of file