diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
index afe2758db9ab1..24c0dba3d3dc5 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt
@@ -510,3 +510,5 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 
 - Bug in ``DataFrame.boxplot`` where ``fontsize`` was not applied to the tick labels on both axes (:issue:`15108`)
+
+- Bug in ``Timestamp.replace`` where invalid argument caused a ValueError instead of TypeError (:issue:`15240`) 
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timezones.py b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timezones.py
index db8cda5c76479..f2527bb9648e6 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timezones.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_timezones.py
@@ -1195,10 +1195,10 @@ def test_replace(self):
         expected = Timestamp('2015-02-02 00:05:05.000005005', tz=tz)
         self.assertEqual(result, expected)
 
-        # error
+        # error GH 15240 return error should be type error not value error
         def f():
             dt.replace(foo=5)
-        self.assertRaises(ValueError, f)
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, f)
 
         def f():
             dt.replace(hour=0.1)
@@ -1208,6 +1208,15 @@ def f():
         dt = Timestamp('2013-11-03 01:59:59.999999-0400', tz='US/Eastern')
         self.assertEqual(dt.tz_localize(None), dt.replace(tzinfo=None))
 
+        # GH 15240 return error should be type error not value error
+        expected = "TypeError(\"'apple' is an invalid keyword " \
+            "argument for this function\",)"
+        try:
+            Timestamp("2012").replace(apple=3)
+        except Exception as e:
+            result = repr(e)
+        self.assertEqual(expected, result)
+
     def test_ambiguous_compat(self):
         # validate that pytz and dateutil are compat for dst
         # when the transition happens
diff --git a/pandas/tslib.pyx b/pandas/tslib.pyx
index 7c65ab5422309..86806b943a9f2 100644
--- a/pandas/tslib.pyx
+++ b/pandas/tslib.pyx
@@ -712,7 +712,8 @@ class Timestamp(_Timestamp):
             elif k == 'tzinfo':
                 tzinfo = v
             else:
-                raise ValueError("invalid name {} passed".format(k))
+                raise TypeError("'{}' is an invalid keyword argument for this function".format(k)) 
+                # ValueError("invalid name {} passed".format(k))
 
         # reconstruct & check bounds
         value = pandas_datetimestruct_to_datetime(PANDAS_FR_ns, &dts)