Index: django/db/utils.py
===================================================================
--- django/db/utils.py	(revision 15844)
+++ django/db/utils.py	(working copy)
@@ -41,12 +41,13 @@
                         and not f.startswith('.')]
             except EnvironmentError:
                 available_backends = []
-            available_backends.sort()
+            if backend_name.startswith('django.db.backends.'):
+                backend_name = backend_name[19:]
             if backend_name not in available_backends:
                 error_msg = ("%r isn't an available database backend. \n" +
                     "Try using django.db.backends.XXX, where XXX is one of:\n    %s\n" +
                     "Error was: %s") % \
-                    (backend_name, ", ".join(map(repr, available_backends)), e_user)
+                    (backend_name, ", ".join(map(repr, sorted(available_backends))), e_user)
                 raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)
             else:
                 raise # If there's some other error, this must be an error in Django itself.