diff --git a/vcsh b/vcsh
index 5d502e7c68f372a427f0ad68e62bc8938899cead..5d5628e236368e7d11addeedc57c60c8f87fa8a6 100755
--- a/vcsh
+++ b/vcsh
@@ -416,7 +416,7 @@ esac
 if [ "$VCSH_COMMAND" = 'clone' ]; then
 	[ -z "$2" ] && fatal "$VCSH_COMMAND: please specify a remote" 1
 	GIT_REMOTE="$2"
-	[ -n "$3" ] && VCSH_REPO_NAME="$3" || VCSH_REPO_NAME=$(basename "$GIT_REMOTE" .git)
+	[ -n "$3" ] && VCSH_REPO_NAME="$3" || VCSH_REPO_NAME=$(basename "${GIT_REMOTE#*:}" .git)
 	[ -z "$VCSH_REPO_NAME" ] && fatal "$VCSH_COMMAND: could not determine repository name" 1
 	export VCSH_REPO_NAME
 	export GIT_DIR="$VCSH_REPO_D/$VCSH_REPO_NAME.git"