diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 49fc6136..e4e854e1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 All notable changes to `laravel-permission` will be documented in this file
 
+## 2.5.1 - 2017-09-02
+- add getRoleNames() method to return a collection of assigned roles
+
 ## 2.5.0 - 2017-08-30
 - add compatiblity with Laravel 5.5
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 41977917..0839bca5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ $permissions = $user->permissions;
 $permissions = $user->getAllPermissions();
 
 // get a collection of all defined roles
-$roles = $user->roles->pluck('name'); // Returns a collection
+$roles = $user->getRoleNames(); // Returns a collection
 ```
 
 The `HasRoles` trait also adds a scope to your models to scope the query to certain roles:
diff --git a/src/Traits/HasRoles.php b/src/Traits/HasRoles.php
index 4244da52..a72ffb68 100644
--- a/src/Traits/HasRoles.php
+++ b/src/Traits/HasRoles.php
@@ -311,6 +311,11 @@ public function getAllPermissions(): Collection
             ->values();
     }
 
+    public function getRoleNames(): Collection
+    {
+        return $this->roles->pluck('name');
+    }
+
     protected function getStoredRole($role): Role
     {
         if (is_string($role)) {
diff --git a/tests/HasRolesTest.php b/tests/HasRolesTest.php
index 1fccf4dd..8f846a11 100644
--- a/tests/HasRolesTest.php
+++ b/tests/HasRolesTest.php
@@ -420,4 +420,15 @@ public function it_can_list_all_the_coupled_permissions_both_directly_and_via_ro
             $this->testUser->getAllPermissions()->pluck('name')
         );
     }
+
+    /** @test */
+    public function it_can_retrieve_role_names()
+    {
+        $this->testUser->assignRole('testRole', 'testRole2');
+
+        $this->assertEquals(
+            collect(['testRole', 'testRole2']),
+            $this->testUser->getRoleNames()
+        );
+    }
 }