--- a/lib/gitlab/regex.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/regex.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+
 module Gitlab
   module Regex
     extend self
@@ -7,7 +9,7 @@
     end
 
     def project_name_regex
-      /\A[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9_\-\. ]*\z/
+      /\A\p{Word}[\p{Word}\-:\. ]*\z/
     end
 
     def name_regex
--- a/app/models/project.rb
+++ b/app/models/project.rb
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
   validates :description, length: { maximum: 2000 }, allow_blank: true
   validates :name, presence: true, length: { within: 0..255 },
             format: { with: Gitlab::Regex.project_name_regex,
-                      message: "only letters, digits, spaces & '_' '-' '.' allowed. Letter or digit should be first" }
+                      message: "only letters, digits, spaces & '_' '-' '.' ':' allowed. Letter or digit should be first" }
   validates :path, presence: true, length: { within: 0..255 },
             exclusion: { in: Gitlab::Blacklist.path },
             format: { with: Gitlab::Regex.path_regex,