diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface.js b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface.js
index 84c1803bcf..af10b8371f 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface.js
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface.js
@@ -1498,11 +1498,28 @@
      */
     getRepos(filter, reposPerPage, opt_offset) {
       const defaultFilter = 'state:active OR state:read-only';
+      const namePartDelimiters = /[@.\-\s\/_]/g;
       const offset = opt_offset || 0;
 
+      if (filter && !filter.includes(':') && filter.match(namePartDelimiters)) {
+        // The query language specifies hyphens as operators. Split the string
+        // by hyphens and 'AND' the parts together as 'inname:' queries.
+        // If the filter includes a semicolon, the user is using a more complex
+        // query so we trust them and don't do any magic under the hood.
+        const originalFilter = filter;
+        filter = '';
+        originalFilter.split(namePartDelimiters).forEach(part => {
+          if (part) {
+            filter += (filter === '' ? 'inname:' : ' AND inname:') + part;
+          }
+        });
+      }
+      // Check if filter is now empty which could be either because the user did
+      // not provide it or because the user provided only a split character.
       if (!filter) {
         filter = defaultFilter;
       }
+
       filter = filter.trim();
       const encodedFilter = encodeURIComponent(filter);
 
diff --git a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface_test.html b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface_test.html
index b7466efec0..d9656e4758 100644
--- a/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface_test.html
+++ b/polygerrit-ui/app/elements/shared/gr-rest-api-interface/gr-rest-api-interface_test.html
@@ -951,16 +951,46 @@ limitations under the License.
             '/projects/?n=26&S=25&query=test');
       });
 
-      test('with filter', () => {
-        element.getRepos('test/test/test', 25);
+      test('with blank', () => {
+        element.getRepos('test/test', 25);
         assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
-            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=test%2Ftest%2Ftest');
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Atest%20AND%20inname%3Atest');
       });
 
-      test('with regex filter', () => {
-        element.getRepos('^test.*', 25);
+      test('with hyphen', () => {
+        element.getRepos('foo-bar', 25);
         assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
-            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=%5Etest.*');
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Afoo%20AND%20inname%3Abar');
+      });
+
+      test('with leading hyphen', () => {
+        element.getRepos('-bar', 25);
+        assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Abar');
+      });
+
+      test('with trailing hyphen', () => {
+        element.getRepos('foo-bar-', 25);
+        assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Afoo%20AND%20inname%3Abar');
+      });
+
+      test('with underscore', () => {
+        element.getRepos('foo_bar', 25);
+        assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Afoo%20AND%20inname%3Abar');
+      });
+
+      test('with underscore', () => {
+        element.getRepos('foo_bar', 25);
+        assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
+            '/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=inname%3Afoo%20AND%20inname%3Abar');
+      });
+
+      test('hyphen only', () => {
+        element.getRepos('-', 25);
+        assert.equal(element._fetchSharedCacheURL.lastCall.args[0].url,
+            `/projects/?n=26&S=0&query=${defaultQuery}`);
       });
     });