diff --git a/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.spec.ts b/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.spec.ts
index a1225c1d0..7fe684042 100644
--- a/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.spec.ts
+++ b/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.spec.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,35 @@ describe('text search utilities', () => {
     expect(matchesSearchText('taxes 2026', 'tax receipt')).toBeFalsy()
   })
 
+  it('does not let two terms match the same word', () => {
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'another tag th')).toBeFalsy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'another tag ag')).toBeFalsy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'another tag e')).toBeFalsy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'another tag')).toBeTruthy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'tag another')).toBeTruthy()
+  })
+
+  it('matches a single term anywhere in the value', () => {
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'anoth')).toBeTruthy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', 'th')).toBeTruthy()
+  })
+
+  it('treats punctuation as a separator on both sides', () => {
+    expect(matchesSearchText('medical-history', 'medical history')).toBeTruthy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('medical history', 'medical-history')).toBeTruthy()
+    expect(matchesSearchText('medical-history', 'medical dental')).toBeFalsy()
+  })
+
+  it('matches longer terms first so they cannot be starved', () => {
+    expect(matchesSearchText('tagger tag', 'tag tagger')).toBeTruthy()
+  })
+
+  it('handles a query with no usable terms', () => {
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', '')).toBeTruthy()
+    // Still filters, so the dropdown can offer to create a tag named "---"
+    expect(matchesSearchText('Another Tag', '---')).toBeFalsy()
+  })
+
   it('matches a large set of tag names without blocking input', () => {
     const tagNames = Array.from(
       { length: 1280 },
diff --git a/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.ts b/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.ts
index f7f552408..82e29eead 100644
--- a/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.ts
+++ b/src-ui/src/app/utils/text-search.ts
@@ -3,13 +3,18 @@ import { diacritics } from 'normalize-diacritics/diacritics'
 export type SearchTextValue =
   string | number | boolean | bigint | null | undefined
 
+const NON_ASCII = /[^\x00-\x7F]/
+const SEPARATORS = /[^\p{L}\p{N}]+/u
+
 export function normalizeSearchText(value: SearchTextValue): string {
-  const normalized = diacritics.reduce(
-    (text, replacement) => {
-      return text.replace(replacement.diacritics, replacement.letter)
-    },
-    String(value ?? '')
-  )
+  const text = String(value ?? '')
+
+  // Nothing in the table matches ASCII, so skip normaliation
+  if (!NON_ASCII.test(text)) return text.toLocaleLowerCase()
+
+  const normalized = diacritics.reduce((text, replacement) => {
+    return text.replace(replacement.diacritics, replacement.letter)
+  }, text)
 
   return normalized.toLocaleLowerCase()
 }
@@ -18,8 +23,28 @@ export function matchesSearchText(
   value: SearchTextValue,
   searchText: SearchTextValue
 ): boolean {
-  const normalizedValue = normalizeSearchText(value)
-  const searchTerms = normalizeSearchText(searchText).trim().split(/\s+/)
+  const query = normalizeSearchText(searchText)
+  const terms = query.split(SEPARATORS).filter(Boolean)
 
-  return searchTerms.every((term) => normalizedValue.includes(term))
+  // Empty or punctuation-only query, nothing to split into terms
+  if (terms.length === 0) {
+    return normalizeSearchText(value).includes(query.trim())
+  }
+
+  const words = normalizeSearchText(value).split(SEPARATORS).filter(Boolean)
+  const claimed = new Array<boolean>(words.length).fill(false)
+
+  // Each term takes a word of its own, longest first, so that "another tag th"
+  // doesn't match "Another Tag" by finding the "th" inside "another"
+  return terms
+    .sort((a, b) => b.length - a.length)
+    .every((term) => {
+      for (let i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
+        if (!claimed[i] && words[i].includes(term)) {
+          claimed[i] = true
+          return true
+        }
+      }
+      return false
+    })
 }