diff --git a/umap/autocomplete.py b/umap/autocomplete.py
index c2bd02c0..6a6fde14 100644
--- a/umap/autocomplete.py
+++ b/umap/autocomplete.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ from agnocomplete.core import AgnocompleteModel
 from agnocomplete.register import register
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
+from django.db.models.functions import Length
 
 
 @register
@@ -13,3 +14,11 @@ class AutocompleteUser(AgnocompleteModel):
         data = super().item(current_item)
         data["url"] = current_item.get_url()
         return data
+
+    def build_extra_filtered_queryset(self, queryset, **kwargs):
+        order_by = []
+        for field_name in self.fields:
+            if not field_name[0].isalnum():
+                field_name = field_name[1:]
+            order_by.append(Length(field_name).asc())
+        return queryset.order_by(*order_by)
diff --git a/umap/tests/test_views.py b/umap/tests/test_views.py
index e13a9c9a..9ecea639 100644
--- a/umap/tests/test_views.py
+++ b/umap/tests/test_views.py
@@ -510,3 +510,21 @@ def test_can_combine_search_and_filter(client, map):
     url = reverse("search")
     response = client.get(url + "?q=dur&tags=bike")
     assert "Blé dur" in response.content.decode()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.django_db
+def test_can_find_small_usernames(client):
+    UserFactory(username="Joe")
+    UserFactory(username="JoeJoe")
+    UserFactory(username="Joe3")
+    UserFactory(username="Joe57")
+    UserFactory(username="JoeBar")
+    url = "/agnocomplete/AutocompleteUser/"
+    response = client.get(url + "?q=joe")
+    data = json.loads(response.content)["data"]
+    assert len(data) == 5
+    assert data[0]["label"] == "Joe"
+    response = client.get(url + "?q=joej")
+    data = json.loads(response.content)["data"]
+    assert len(data) == 1
+    assert data[0]["label"] == "JoeJoe"