diff --git a/mesonbuild/backend/ninjabackend.py b/mesonbuild/backend/ninjabackend.py
index 077254df8..7a4b0cd96 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/backend/ninjabackend.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/backend/ninjabackend.py
@@ -569,7 +569,7 @@ int dummy;
                 visible_name = 'for top level tests'
             else:
                 visible_name = s
-            elem = NinjaBuildElement(self.all_outputs, 'test-' + s, 'CUSTOM_COMMAND', ['all', 'PHONY'])
+            elem = NinjaBuildElement(self.all_outputs, 'test:' + s, 'CUSTOM_COMMAND', ['all', 'PHONY'])
             elem.add_item('COMMAND', cmd + ['--suite=' + s])
             elem.add_item('DESC', 'Running test suite %s.' % visible_name)
             elem.add_item('pool', 'console')
diff --git a/mesonbuild/coredata.py b/mesonbuild/coredata.py
index 9507a033c..494c89f68 100644
--- a/mesonbuild/coredata.py
+++ b/mesonbuild/coredata.py
@@ -228,8 +228,9 @@ forbidden_target_names = {'clean': None,
                           'PHONY': None,
                           'all': None,
                           'test': None,
+                          'test:': None,
                           'test-valgrind': None,
-                          'test-': None,
+                          'test-valgrind:': None,
                           'benchmark': None,
                           'install': None,
                           'build.ninja': None,