diff --git a/git-send-email.perl b/git-send-email.perl
index ef30c557c7..664713709c 100755
--- a/git-send-email.perl
+++ b/git-send-email.perl
@@ -862,11 +862,13 @@ $time = time - scalar $#files;
 sub unquote_rfc2047 {
 	local ($_) = @_;
 	my $encoding;
-	if (s/=\?([^?]+)\?q\?(.*)\?=/$2/g) {
+	s{=\?([^?]+)\?q\?(.*?)\?=}{
 		$encoding = $1;
-		s/_/ /g;
-		s/=([0-9A-F]{2})/chr(hex($1))/eg;
-	}
+		my $e = $2;
+		$e =~ s/_/ /g;
+		$e =~ s/=([0-9A-F]{2})/chr(hex($1))/eg;
+		$e;
+	}eg;
 	return wantarray ? ($_, $encoding) : $_;
 }
 
diff --git a/t/t9001-send-email.sh b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
index 8c12c65c72..035122808b 100755
--- a/t/t9001-send-email.sh
+++ b/t/t9001-send-email.sh
@@ -841,6 +841,19 @@ test_expect_success $PREREQ '--compose adds MIME for utf8 subject' '
 	grep "^Subject: =?UTF-8?q?utf8-s=C3=BCbj=C3=ABct?=" msgtxt1
 '
 
+test_expect_success $PREREQ 'utf8 author is correctly passed on' '
+	clean_fake_sendmail &&
+	test_commit weird_author &&
+	test_when_finished "git reset --hard HEAD^" &&
+	git commit --amend --author "Füñný Nâmé <odd_?=mail@example.com>" &&
+	git format-patch --stdout -1 >funny_name.patch &&
+	git send-email --from="Example <nobody@example.com>" \
+	  --to=nobody@example.com \
+	  --smtp-server="$(pwd)/fake.sendmail" \
+	  funny_name.patch &&
+	grep "^From: Füñný Nâmé <odd_?=mail@example.com>" msgtxt1
+'
+
 test_expect_success $PREREQ 'detects ambiguous reference/file conflict' '
 	echo master > master &&
 	git add master &&