diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/85361-collection-name-from-path-none.yml b/changelogs/fragments/85361-collection-name-from-path-none.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4acbbe8af1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/85361-collection-name-from-path-none.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - "ansible-doc - prevent crash when scanning collections in paths that have more than one ``ansible_collections`` in it
+     (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/84909, https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/85361)."
diff --git a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
index 719afd2a4f9..45f4cc75f46 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/cli/doc.py
@@ -231,7 +231,9 @@ class RoleMixin(object):
         b_colldirs = list_collection_dirs(coll_filter=collection_filter)
         for b_path in b_colldirs:
             path = to_text(b_path, errors='surrogate_or_strict')
-            collname = _get_collection_name_from_path(b_path)
+            if not (collname := _get_collection_name_from_path(b_path)):
+                display.debug(f'Skipping invalid path {b_path!r}')
+                continue
 
             roles_dir = os.path.join(path, 'roles')
             if os.path.exists(roles_dir):
diff --git a/lib/ansible/collections/list.py b/lib/ansible/collections/list.py
index 473c56d0945..1c8fdae9508 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/collections/list.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/collections/list.py
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ def list_collections(coll_filter=None, search_paths=None, dedupe=True, artifacts
 
     collections = {}
     for candidate in list_collection_dirs(search_paths=search_paths, coll_filter=coll_filter, artifacts_manager=artifacts_manager, dedupe=dedupe):
-        collection = _get_collection_name_from_path(candidate)
-        collections[collection] = candidate
+        if collection := _get_collection_name_from_path(candidate):
+            collections[collection] = candidate
+        else:
+            display.debug(f'Skipping invalid collection in path: {candidate!r}')
     return collections
 
 
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/collections/ansible_collections/testns/testcol/playbooks/collections/ansible_collections/ns/col/plugins/modules/test.py b/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/collections/ansible_collections/testns/testcol/playbooks/collections/ansible_collections/ns/col/plugins/modules/test.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e69de29bb2d
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh b/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
index 93a0d1b2500..752ab6d2672 100755
--- a/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
+++ b/test/integration/targets/ansible-doc/runme.sh
@@ -208,6 +208,13 @@ ANSIBLE_LIBRARY='./nolibrary' ansible-doc --metadata-dump --no-fail-on-errors --
 output=$(ANSIBLE_LIBRARY='./nolibrary' ansible-doc --metadata-dump --playbook-dir broken-docs testns.testcol 2>&1 | grep -c 'ERROR!' || true)
 test "${output}" -eq 1
 
+# ensure --metadata-dump does not crash if the ansible_collections is nested (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/84909)
+testdir="$(pwd)"
+pbdir="collections/ansible_collections/testns/testcol/playbooks"
+cd "$pbdir"
+ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH="$testdir/$pbdir/collections" ansible-doc -vvv --metadata-dump --no-fail-on-errors
+cd "$testdir"
+
 # ensure that role doc does not fail when --no-fail-on-errors is supplied
 ANSIBLE_LIBRARY='./nolibrary' ansible-doc --no-fail-on-errors --playbook-dir broken-docs testns.testcol.testrole -t role 1>/dev/null 2>&1