diff --git a/git-topic.perl b/git-topic.perl
index 4a89e24acd..40e16d3475 100755
--- a/git-topic.perl
+++ b/git-topic.perl
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 use strict;
 use Getopt::Long;
 
-my $topic_pattern = '??/*';
+my $topic_pattern = '??*/*';
 my $base = 'next';
 my @stage = qw(next pu);
 my @mark = ('.', '?', '-', '+');