diff --git a/lib/gitlab/regex.rb b/lib/gitlab/regex.rb
index cf6e260..5657566 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/regex.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/regex.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+
 module Gitlab
   module Regex
     extend self
@@ -11,12 +13,12 @@ module Gitlab
     end
 
     def project_name_regex
-      /\A[a-zA-Z0-9_.][a-zA-Z0-9_\-\. ]*\z/
+      /\A[\p{Word}_.][\p{Word}_\-:\. ]*\z/
     end
 
     def project_regex_message
-      "can contain only letters, digits, '_', '-' and '.' and space. " \
-      "It must start with letter, digit or '_'."
+      "can contain only letters, digits, '_', '-', ':' and '.' and space. " \
+      "It must start with letter, digit, '.' or '_'."
     end
 
     def name_regex