diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 82417fc90..35b30d491 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #Nmap Changelog ($Id$); -*-text-*-
 
+o Fixed an issue with the parallel forward DNS resolver: it had not been
+  consulting /etc/hosts, nor did it correctly handle the 'localhost' name.
+
 Nmap 7.96 [2025-05-01]
 
 o Upgraded included libraries: OpenSSL 3.0.16, Lua 5.4.7, libssh2 1.11.1,
diff --git a/nmap_dns.cc b/nmap_dns.cc
index e3021d0bf..0cfd2a9cc 100644
--- a/nmap_dns.cc
+++ b/nmap_dns.cc
@@ -1088,6 +1088,17 @@ static void parse_etchosts(const char *fname) {
   sockaddr_storage ia;
   size_t ialen;
 
+  // First, load localhost names
+  line = "localhost";
+  if (0 == resolve_numeric("::1", 0, &ia, &ialen, AF_INET6)) {
+    host_cache.add(ia, line);
+    etchosts[NameRecord(line, DNS::AAAA)] = ia;
+  }
+  if (0 == resolve_numeric("127.0.0.1", 0, &ia, &ialen, AF_INET)) {
+    host_cache.add(ia, line);
+    etchosts[NameRecord(line, DNS::A)] = ia;
+  }
+
   if (ifs.fail()) return; // silently is OK
 
   while (std::getline(ifs, line)) {