diff --git a/model/model.go b/model/model.go
index 2b6ad73172..0af16da80d 100644
--- a/model/model.go
+++ b/model/model.go
@@ -187,15 +187,17 @@ func populateFields(base Base, v reflect.Value, tags ...Tag) reflect.Value {
 								names = append(names, prefix+n+suffix)
 							}
 						}
-
-						if childNames := fn(tags[1:], tags[0].prefix, tags[0].suffix); len(childNames) == 0 {
-							// no child names, append current names
-							fullNames = append(fullNames, names)
-						} else if len(names) == 0 {
-							// no current names, append child names
+						childNames := fn(tags[1:], tags[0].prefix, tags[0].suffix)
+						if len(names) == 0 {
+							// current tag has no name, use child names only
 							fullNames = append(fullNames, childNames...)
+						} else if len(childNames) == 0 {
+							// current tag has names but no children, create branches for each name
+							for _, name := range names {
+								fullNames = append(fullNames, []string{name})
+							}
 						} else {
-							// combine current and child names
+							// merge each name with each child
 							for _, name := range names {
 								for _, childName := range childNames {
 									fullNames = append(fullNames, append([]string{name}, childName...))
diff --git a/model/model_test.go b/model/model_test.go
index e47278540d..f6d75b2302 100644
--- a/model/model_test.go
+++ b/model/model_test.go
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ func TestPopulateFieldsAlternateName(t *testing.T) {
 		Input  *nn.Embedding `gguf:"input"`
 		Output *nn.Linear    `gguf:"output,alt:input"`
 		Nested *nested       `gguf:"nested"`
+		Tensor ml.Tensor     `gguf:"leaf,alt:tensor"`
 	}
 
 	var m fakeModel
@@ -133,6 +134,7 @@ func TestPopulateFieldsAlternateName(t *testing.T) {
 		names: []string{
 			"input.weight",
 			"nested.b.weight",
+			"leaf",
 		},
 	}}, v.Elem()))
 
@@ -142,6 +144,7 @@ func TestPopulateFieldsAlternateName(t *testing.T) {
 		Nested: &nested{
 			Weight: &nn.Linear{Weight: &fakeTensor{Name: "nested.b.weight"}},
 		},
+		Tensor: &fakeTensor{Name: "leaf"},
 	}, m); diff != "" {
 		t.Errorf("populateFields() set incorrect values (-want +got):\n%s", diff)
 	}