diff --git a/src/buffer_manager.cc b/src/buffer_manager.cc
index 38256ff1..75d0e94c 100644
--- a/src/buffer_manager.cc
+++ b/src/buffer_manager.cc
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ CandidateList BufferManager::complete_buffername(const String& prefix,
     {
         const String& name = buffer->name();
         if (name.substr(0, real_prefix.length()) == real_prefix)
-            result.push_back(name);
+            result.push_back(escape(name));
     }
     // no prefix completion found, check regex matching
     if (result.empty())
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ CandidateList BufferManager::complete_buffername(const String& prefix,
             {
                 const String& name = buffer->name();
                 if (boost::regex_search(name.begin(), name.end(), ex))
-                    result.push_back(name);
+                    result.push_back(escape(name));
             }
         }
         catch (boost::regex_error& err) {}
diff --git a/src/completion.cc b/src/completion.cc
index c7d3bbe1..2cbc1468 100644
--- a/src/completion.cc
+++ b/src/completion.cc
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ CandidateList complete_filename(const Context& context,
             if (entry->d_type == DT_DIR)
                 name += '/';
             if (fileprefix.length() != 0 or filename[0] != '.')
-                result.push_back(name);
+                result.push_back(escape(name));
         }
     }
     std::sort(result.begin(), result.end());
diff --git a/src/utils.hh b/src/utils.hh
index 6555e320..9892fc92 100644
--- a/src/utils.hh
+++ b/src/utils.hh
@@ -190,6 +190,11 @@ bool operator== (const std::unique_ptr<T>& lhs, T* rhs)
     return lhs.get() == rhs;
 }
 
+inline String escape(const String& name)
+{
+    return name.replace("([ \\t;])", R"(\\\1)");
+}
+
 }
 
 #endif // utils_hh_INCLUDED