diff --git a/src/wikiq/__init__.py b/src/wikiq/__init__.py
index 9d3cb7a..5a6728f 100755
--- a/src/wikiq/__init__.py
+++ b/src/wikiq/__init__.py
@@ -385,8 +385,12 @@ class WikiqPage:
         # page.namespace is inconsistent with namespace_map
         if page.namespace not in namespace_map:
             page.namespace = 0
+        # mwxml >= 0.3.7 keeps the namespace prefix on the title when the dump
+        # has <ns> tags, but strips it on the no-<ns> fallback path
         if page.namespace != 0:
-            page.title = ":".join([namespace_map[page.namespace], page.title])
+            ns_prefix = namespace_map[page.namespace] + ":"
+            if not page.title.startswith(ns_prefix):
+                page.title = ns_prefix + page.title
         self.restrictions = page.restrictions
         self.collapse_user = collapse_user
         self.mwpage = page