diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/emoji/emoji.js.erb b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/emoji/emoji.js.erb
index 4643cf34f..b468b2684 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/emoji/emoji.js.erb
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/emoji/emoji.js.erb
@@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ Discourse.Emoji.search = function(term, options) {
 
   for (i=0; i<toSearch.length; i++) {
     item = toSearch[i];
-    if (item.indexOf(term) === 0 && addResult(item)) {
+    if (item.indexOf(term) > 0 && addResult(item)) {
       return results;
     }
   }
diff --git a/test/javascripts/lib/emoji-test.js.es6 b/test/javascripts/lib/emoji-test.js.es6
index 4f3ba3c8e..3555ceb54 100644
--- a/test/javascripts/lib/emoji-test.js.es6
+++ b/test/javascripts/lib/emoji-test.js.es6
@@ -28,4 +28,7 @@ test("Emoji.search", function(){
   // able to find an alias
   equal(Discourse.Emoji.search("+1").length, 1);
 
+  // able to find middle of line search
+  equal(Discourse.Emoji.search("check", {maxResults: 3}).length, 3);
+
 });