Okay, turns out that this is a real bug, see: <https://lists.isc.org/pipermail/bind-users/2008-August/072108.html>
The report describes a scenario quite similar to mine. "empty name" probably refers to "empty non-terminal". I will check if the patch has been incorporated upstream. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org