diff --git a/local-cli/generator/copyProjectTemplateAndReplace.js b/local-cli/generator/copyProjectTemplateAndReplace.js
index d202434d4..b169736c0 100644
--- a/local-cli/generator/copyProjectTemplateAndReplace.js
+++ b/local-cli/generator/copyProjectTemplateAndReplace.js
@@ -39,11 +39,10 @@ function copyProjectTemplateAndReplace(srcPath, destPath, newProjectName, option
     }
 
     const relativeFilePath = path.relative(srcPath, absoluteSrcFilePath);
-    const relativeRenamedPath = relativeFilePath
+    const relativeRenamedPath = dotFilePath(relativeFilePath)
       .replace(/HelloWorld/g, newProjectName)
       .replace(/helloworld/g, newProjectName.toLowerCase());
 
-
     let contentChangedCallback = null;
     if (options && options.upgrade && (!options.force)) {
       contentChangedCallback = (_, contentChanged) => {
@@ -66,6 +65,24 @@ function copyProjectTemplateAndReplace(srcPath, destPath, newProjectName, option
   });
 }
 
+/**
+ * There are various dotfiles in the templates folder in the RN repo. We want
+ * these to be ignored by tools when working with React Native itself.
+ * Example: _babelrc file is ignored by Babel, renamed to .babelrc inside
+ *          a real app folder.
+ * This is especially important for .gitignore because npm has some special
+ * behavior of automatically renaming .gitignore to .npmignore.
+ */
+function dotFilePath(path) {
+  if (!path) return path;
+  return path
+    .replace('_gitignore', '.gitignore')
+    .replace('_babelrc', '.babelrc')
+    .replace('_flowconfig', '.flowconfig')
+    .replace('_buckconfig', '.buckconfig')
+    .replace('_watchmanconfig', '.watchmanconfig');
+}
+
 function upgradeFileContentChangedCallback(
   absoluteSrcFilePath,
   relativeDestPath,
diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.babelrc b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_babelrc
similarity index 100%
rename from local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.babelrc
rename to local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_babelrc
diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.buckconfig b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_buckconfig
similarity index 100%
rename from local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.buckconfig
rename to local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_buckconfig
diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.flowconfig b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_flowconfig
similarity index 100%
rename from local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.flowconfig
rename to local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_flowconfig
diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.gitignore b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_gitignore
similarity index 100%
rename from local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.gitignore
rename to local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_gitignore
diff --git a/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.watchmanconfig b/local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_watchmanconfig
similarity index 100%
rename from local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/.watchmanconfig
rename to local-cli/templates/HelloWorld/_watchmanconfig