diff --git a/ci/release/changelogs/next.md b/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
index bbcda170f..150fc23d1 100644
--- a/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
+++ b/ci/release/changelogs/next.md
@@ -31,3 +31,4 @@ Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays this week!
 - Connections at the boundaries no longer get part of its stroke clipped. [#493](https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/493)
 - Fixes edge case where `style` being defined in same scope as `sql_table` causes compiler to skip compiling `sql_table`. [#506](https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/issues/506)
 - Fixes panic passing a non-string value to `constraint`. [#248](https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/issues/248)
+- Fixes edge case where the key `null` was compiling wrongly. [#507](https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/issues/507)
diff --git a/d2compiler/compile_test.go b/d2compiler/compile_test.go
index d6459f34d..29d99cee0 100644
--- a/d2compiler/compile_test.go
+++ b/d2compiler/compile_test.go
@@ -1672,6 +1672,16 @@ choo: {
 				}
 			},
 		},
+		{
+			name: "null",
+
+			text: `null
+`,
+			assertions: func(t *testing.T, g *d2graph.Graph) {
+				tassert.Equal(t, "'null'", g.Objects[0].ID)
+				tassert.Equal(t, "null", g.Objects[0].IDVal)
+			},
+		},
 		{
 			name: "sql-regression",
 
diff --git a/d2format/escape.go b/d2format/escape.go
index b6267ea80..9789a9c2d 100644
--- a/d2format/escape.go
+++ b/d2format/escape.go
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ func escapeUnquotedValue(s string, inKey bool) string {
 	}
 
 	if strings.EqualFold(s, "null") {
-		return "\\null"
+		return `'null'`
 	}
 
 	var b strings.Builder
diff --git a/d2format/escape_test.go b/d2format/escape_test.go
index c0090c03f..b7e67837c 100644
--- a/d2format/escape_test.go
+++ b/d2format/escape_test.go
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ func TestEscapeUnquoted(t *testing.T) {
 		{
 			name: "null",
 			str:  `null`,
-			exp:  `\null`,
+			exp:  `'null'`,
 		},
 		{
 			name: "empty",
diff --git a/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.exp.json b/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.exp.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f38e28de6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.exp.json
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+{
+  "graph": {
+    "ast": {
+      "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-1:0:5",
+      "nodes": [
+        {
+          "map_key": {
+            "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-0:4:4",
+            "key": {
+              "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-0:4:4",
+              "path": [
+                {
+                  "unquoted_string": {
+                    "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-0:4:4",
+                    "value": [
+                      {
+                        "string": "null",
+                        "raw_string": "null"
+                      }
+                    ]
+                  }
+                }
+              ]
+            },
+            "primary": {},
+            "value": {}
+          }
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    "root": {
+      "id": "",
+      "id_val": "",
+      "label_dimensions": {
+        "width": 0,
+        "height": 0
+      },
+      "attributes": {
+        "label": {
+          "value": ""
+        },
+        "style": {},
+        "near_key": null,
+        "shape": {
+          "value": ""
+        },
+        "direction": {
+          "value": ""
+        }
+      },
+      "zIndex": 0
+    },
+    "edges": null,
+    "objects": [
+      {
+        "id": "'null'",
+        "id_val": "null",
+        "label_dimensions": {
+          "width": 0,
+          "height": 0
+        },
+        "references": [
+          {
+            "key": {
+              "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-0:4:4",
+              "path": [
+                {
+                  "unquoted_string": {
+                    "range": "d2/testdata/d2compiler/TestCompile/null.d2,0:0:0-0:4:4",
+                    "value": [
+                      {
+                        "string": "null",
+                        "raw_string": "null"
+                      }
+                    ]
+                  }
+                }
+              ]
+            },
+            "key_path_index": 0,
+            "map_key_edge_index": 0
+          }
+        ],
+        "attributes": {
+          "label": {
+            "value": "null"
+          },
+          "style": {},
+          "near_key": null,
+          "shape": {
+            "value": ""
+          },
+          "direction": {
+            "value": ""
+          }
+        },
+        "zIndex": 0
+      }
+    ]
+  },
+  "err": null
+}