diff --git a/src/callbacks.py b/src/callbacks.py
index c2c75461f..ad60ba7ba 100644
--- a/src/callbacks.py
+++ b/src/callbacks.py
@@ -98,7 +98,13 @@ def canonicalName(command):
     Currently, this makes everything lowercase and removes all dashes and
     underscores.
     """
-    return command.translate(string.ascii, '\t -_').lower()
+    assert not isinstance(command, unicode)
+    special = '\t -_'
+    reAppend = ''
+    while command and command[-1] in special:
+        reAppend = command[-1] + reAppend
+        command = command[:-1]
+    return command.translate(string.ascii, special).lower() + reAppend
 
 def reply(msg, s, prefixName=True, private=False, notice=False):
     """Makes a reply to msg with the payload s"""
diff --git a/test/test_callbacks.py b/test/test_callbacks.py
index 85c0ad8e2..dbe2b19b7 100644
--- a/test/test_callbacks.py
+++ b/test/test_callbacks.py
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ class FunctionsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual('foobar', callbacks.canonicalName('FOO-bar'))
         self.assertEqual('foobar', callbacks.canonicalName('FOOBAR'))
         self.assertEqual('foobar', callbacks.canonicalName('foo___bar'))
-        self.assertEqual('foobar', callbacks.canonicalName('_f_o_o-b_a_r_'))
+        self.assertEqual('foobar', callbacks.canonicalName('_f_o_o-b_a_r'))
+        self.assertEqual('foobar--', callbacks.canonicalName('foobar--'))
 
     def testAddressed(self):
         oldprefixchars = conf.prefixChars