diff --git a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
index 7be075d2a..932ccd80e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.asciidoc
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ Changed
 - `:tab-move +/-` now wraps around if `tabs -> wrap` is `true`.
 - When a subprocess (like launched by `:spawn`) fails, its stdout/stderr is now
   logged to the console.
+- A search engine name can now contain any non-space character, like dashes.
 
 Deprecated
 ~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/qutebrowser/utils/urlutils.py b/qutebrowser/utils/urlutils.py
index 4c189ac3b..c8917efe5 100644
--- a/qutebrowser/utils/urlutils.py
+++ b/qutebrowser/utils/urlutils.py
@@ -62,19 +62,22 @@ def _parse_search_term(s):
     Return:
         A (engine, term) tuple, where engine is None for the default engine.
     """
-    m = re.search(r'(^\w+)\s+(.+)($|\s+)', s)
-    if m:
-        engine = m.group(1)
+    s = s.strip()
+    splitted = s.split(maxsplit=1)
+
+    if len(splitted) == 2:
+        engine = splitted[0]
         try:
             config.get('searchengines', engine)
         except configexc.NoOptionError:
             engine = None
             term = s
         else:
-            term = m.group(2).rstrip()
+            term = splitted[1]
     else:
         engine = None
         term = s
+
     log.url.debug("engine {}, term '{}'".format(engine, term))
     return (engine, term)
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/utils/test_urlutils.py b/tests/unit/utils/test_urlutils.py
index 67f876ed0..98609c1f9 100644
--- a/tests/unit/utils/test_urlutils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/utils/test_urlutils.py
@@ -98,6 +98,7 @@ def urlutils_config_stub(config_stub, monkeypatch):
         'general': {'auto-search': True},
         'searchengines': {
             'test': 'http://www.qutebrowser.org/?q={}',
+            'test-with-dash': 'http://www.example.org/?q={}',
             'DEFAULT': 'http://www.example.com/?q={}',
         },
     }
@@ -247,6 +248,8 @@ def test_special_urls(url, special):
     ('test testfoo ', 'www.qutebrowser.org', 'q=testfoo'),
     ('!python testfoo', 'www.example.com', 'q=%21python testfoo'),
     ('blub testfoo', 'www.example.com', 'q=blub testfoo'),
+    ('stripped ', 'www.example.com', 'q=stripped'),
+    ('test-with-dash testfoo', 'www.example.org', 'q=testfoo'),
 ])
 def test_get_search_url(urlutils_config_stub, url, host, query):
     """Test _get_search_url().