diff --git a/packages/block-serialization-default-parser/src/index.js b/packages/block-serialization-default-parser/src/index.js
index 9fd67cde2b1d96..3c722aeee6294e 100644
--- a/packages/block-serialization-default-parser/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/block-serialization-default-parser/src/index.js
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ let stack;
  * @since 4.6.1 added optimization to prevent backtracking on attribute parsing
  */
 const tokenizer =
-	/<!--\s+(\/)?wp:([a-z][a-z0-9_-]*\/)?([a-z][a-z0-9_-]*)\s+({(?:(?=([^}]+|}+(?=})|(?!}\s+\/?-->)[^])*)\5|[^]*?)}\s+)?(\/)?-->/g;
+	/<!--\s+(\/)?wp:([a-z][a-z0-9_-]*\/)?([a-z][a-z0-9/_-]*)\s+({(?:(?=([^}]+|}+(?=})|(?!}\s+\/?-->)[^])*)\5|[^]*?)}\s+)?(\/)?-->/g;
 
 /**
  * Constructs a block object.
diff --git a/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/convert-alias-block.js b/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/convert-alias-block.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..45f67c7f00aae6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/convert-alias-block.js
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/**
+ * Internal dependencies
+ */
+import { getBlockVariations } from '../registration';
+
+/**
+ * Convert alias blocks to their canonical form. This function is used
+ * at the parser level for previous content.
+ *
+ * @param {string} name The block's name, possibly with a variation suffix.
+ *
+ * @return {string} The block's canonical name, with the variation suffix removed.
+ */
+export function stripBlockVariationSuffixFromBlockName( name ) {
+	const blockNameParts = name.split( '/' );
+
+	if ( blockNameParts.length > 2 || blockNameParts[ 0 ] === 'core' ) {
+		// We're dealing with a block with a variation (e.g. 'my-plugin/my-block/variation'),
+		// or with a Core block without variation (e.g. 'core/social-link').
+		return blockNameParts[ 0 ] + '/' + blockNameParts[ 1 ];
+	} else if ( blockNameParts.length === 2 ) {
+		// We're either dealing with a non-Core block (e.g. 'my-plugin/my-block')
+		// or with a Core block with a variation (with an implied 'core/' namespace)
+		// (e.g. 'social-link/wordpress').
+		const potentialCoreBlockName = 'core/' + blockNameParts[ 0 ];
+		const variations = getBlockVariations( potentialCoreBlockName );
+		if (
+			variations?.some(
+				( variation ) => variation.name === blockNameParts[ 1 ]
+			)
+		) {
+			return potentialCoreBlockName;
+		}
+		return blockNameParts[ 0 ] + '/' + blockNameParts[ 1 ];
+	}
+
+	// We're dealing with a Core block without a variation, and an implied 'core/' namespace.
+	return blockNameParts[ 0 ];
+}
diff --git a/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/index.js b/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/index.js
index f8ff0c68964dc3..392f6b293879d6 100644
--- a/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/index.js
+++ b/packages/blocks/src/api/parser/index.js
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { getSaveContent } from '../serializer';
 import { validateBlock } from '../validation';
 import { createBlock } from '../factory';
 import { convertLegacyBlockNameAndAttributes } from './convert-legacy-block';
+import { stripBlockVariationSuffixFromBlockName } from './convert-alias-block';
 import { serializeRawBlock } from './serialize-raw-block';
 import { getBlockAttributes } from './get-block-attributes';
 import { applyBlockDeprecatedVersions } from './apply-block-deprecated-versions';
@@ -78,6 +79,24 @@ function convertLegacyBlocks( rawBlock ) {
 	};
 }
 
+/**
+ * Convert alias blocks to their canonical form. This function is used
+ * at the parser level for previous content.
+ *
+ * @param {WPRawBlock} rawBlock
+ *
+ * @return {WPRawBlock} The block's name and attributes, changed accordingly if a match was found
+ */
+function convertAliasBlocks( rawBlock ) {
+	const correctName = stripBlockVariationSuffixFromBlockName(
+		rawBlock.blockName
+	);
+	return {
+		...rawBlock,
+		blockName: correctName,
+	};
+}
+
 /**
  * Normalize the raw block by applying the fallback block name if none given,
  * sanitize the parsed HTML...
@@ -201,6 +220,9 @@ export function parseRawBlock( rawBlock, options ) {
 	// we added this function to properly parse the old content.
 	normalizedBlock = convertLegacyBlocks( normalizedBlock );
 
+	// Convert alias blocks to their canonical form.
+	normalizedBlock = convertAliasBlocks( normalizedBlock );
+
 	// Try finding the type for known block name.
 	let blockType = getBlockType( normalizedBlock.blockName );
 
diff --git a/packages/blocks/src/api/registration.js b/packages/blocks/src/api/registration.js
index fb21b7083b0c54..36428621029e40 100644
--- a/packages/blocks/src/api/registration.js
+++ b/packages/blocks/src/api/registration.js
@@ -690,6 +690,14 @@ export const getBlockVariations = ( blockName, scope ) => {
 	return select( blocksStore ).getBlockVariations( blockName, scope );
 };
 
+export const getActiveBlockVariation = ( blockName, attributes, scope ) => {
+	return select( blocksStore ).getActiveBlockVariation(
+		blockName,
+		attributes,
+		scope
+	);
+};
+
 /**
  * Registers a new block variation for the given block type.
  *
diff --git a/packages/blocks/src/api/serializer.js b/packages/blocks/src/api/serializer.js
index 609e62fc7e84b2..781a5a9c8fd508 100644
--- a/packages/blocks/src/api/serializer.js
+++ b/packages/blocks/src/api/serializer.js
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import { removep } from '@wordpress/autop';
  * Internal dependencies
  */
 import {
+	getActiveBlockVariation,
 	getBlockType,
 	getFreeformContentHandlerName,
 	getUnregisteredTypeHandlerName,
@@ -322,15 +323,21 @@ export function getCommentDelimitedContent(
 	attributes,
 	content
 ) {
+	const variation = getActiveBlockVariation( rawBlockName, attributes );
+
+	let blockName = variation
+		? `${ rawBlockName }/${ variation.name }`
+		: rawBlockName;
+
 	const serializedAttributes =
 		attributes && Object.entries( attributes ).length
 			? serializeAttributes( attributes ) + ' '
 			: '';
 
 	// Strip core blocks of their namespace prefix.
-	const blockName = rawBlockName?.startsWith( 'core/' )
-		? rawBlockName.slice( 5 )
-		: rawBlockName;
+	blockName = blockName?.startsWith( 'core/' )
+		? blockName.slice( 5 )
+		: blockName;
 
 	// @todo make the `wp:` prefix potentially configurable.