diff --git a/spec/validator_spec.js b/spec/validator_spec.js
index d1cf43bc..0c7784aa 100644
--- a/spec/validator_spec.js
+++ b/spec/validator_spec.js
@@ -378,6 +378,20 @@ attribute2="attribute2"
         validate('<rootNode>jekyll &abcdefghij1234567890;</rootNode>');
         validate('<rootNode>jekyll &abcdefghij1234567890a;</rootNode>', error); // limit to 20 chars
     });
+
+    it('should validate entity names with "-", "." and other XML name characters', function () {
+        const error = {
+            InvalidChar: "char '&' is not expected."
+        };
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo-bar; hyde</rootNode>');
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo.bar; hyde</rootNode>');
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo:bar; hyde</rootNode>');
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &caf\u00e9; hyde</rootNode>');
+        validate('<!DOCTYPE doc [<!ENTITY foo-bar "hello">]><a>&foo-bar;</a>');
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo bar; hyde</rootNode>', error);
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo+bar; hyde</rootNode>', error);
+        validate('<rootNode>jekyll &foo-bar hyde</rootNode>', error);
+    });
 });
 
 describe("should not validate XML documents with multiple root nodes", () => {
diff --git a/src/util.js b/src/util.js
index c2c809d1..ffcf30f4 100644
--- a/src/util.js
+++ b/src/util.js
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ const nameStartChar = ':A-Za-z_\\u00C0-\\u00D6\\u00D8-\\u00F6\\u00F8-\\u02FF\\u0
 const nameChar = nameStartChar + '\\-.\\d\\u00B7\\u0300-\\u036F\\u203F-\\u2040';
 export const nameRegexp = '[' + nameStartChar + '][' + nameChar + ']*';
 const regexName = new RegExp('^' + nameRegexp + '$');
+const regexNameChar = new RegExp('^[' + nameChar + ']$');
 
 export function getAllMatches(string, regex) {
   const matches = [];
@@ -26,6 +27,10 @@ export const isName = function (string) {
   return !(match === null || typeof match === 'undefined');
 }
 
+export const isNameChar = function (char) {
+  return regexNameChar.test(char);
+}
+
 export function isExist(v) {
   return typeof v !== 'undefined';
 }
diff --git a/src/validator.js b/src/validator.js
index 6f9904f0..8c1e25a8 100644
--- a/src/validator.js
+++ b/src/validator.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 'use strict';
 
-import { isName } from './util.js';
+import { isName, isNameChar } from './util.js';
 
 const defaultOptions = {
   allowBooleanAttributes: false, //A tag can have attributes without any value
@@ -471,7 +471,7 @@ function validateAmpersand(xmlData, i) {
   }
   let count = 0;
   for (; i < xmlData.length; i++, count++) {
-    if (xmlData[i].match(/\w/) && count < 20)
+    if (isNameChar(xmlData[i]) && count < 20)
       continue;
     if (xmlData[i] === ';')
       break;