diff --git a/scrapy/commands/genspider.py b/scrapy/commands/genspider.py
index 5f44daa70..2082a4974 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/genspider.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/genspider.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import string
 
 from importlib import import_module
 from os.path import join, dirname, abspath, exists, splitext
+from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
 import scrapy
 from scrapy.commands import ScrapyCommand
@@ -22,6 +23,14 @@ def sanitize_module_name(module_name):
     return module_name
 
 
+def extract_domain(url):
+    """Extract domain name from URL string"""
+    o = urlparse(url)
+    if o.scheme == '' and o.netloc == '':
+        o = urlparse("//" + url.lstrip("/"))
+    return o.netloc
+
+
 class Command(ScrapyCommand):
 
     requires_project = False
@@ -59,7 +68,8 @@ class Command(ScrapyCommand):
         if len(args) != 2:
             raise UsageError()
 
-        name, domain = args[0:2]
+        name, url = args[0:2]
+        domain = extract_domain(url)
         module = sanitize_module_name(name)
 
         if self.settings.get('BOT_NAME') == module:
diff --git a/tests/test_commands.py b/tests/test_commands.py
index 74b917d93..086286b3a 100644
--- a/tests/test_commands.py
+++ b/tests/test_commands.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import json
 import optparse
 import os
 import platform
+import re
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import tempfile
@@ -94,6 +95,15 @@ class ProjectTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
         return p, to_unicode(stdout), to_unicode(stderr)
 
+    def find_in_file(self, filename, regex):
+        """Find first pattern occurrence in file"""
+        pattern = re.compile(regex)
+        with open(filename, "r") as f:
+            for line in f:
+                match = pattern.search(line)
+                if match is not None:
+                    return match
+
 
 class StartprojectTest(ProjectTest):
 
@@ -482,6 +492,26 @@ class GenspiderCommandTest(CommandTest):
     def test_same_filename_as_existing_spider_force(self):
         self.test_same_filename_as_existing_spider(force=True)
 
+    def test_url(self, url='test.com', domain="test.com"):
+        self.assertEqual(0, self.call('genspider', '--force', 'test_name', url))
+        self.assertEqual(domain,
+                         self.find_in_file(join(self.proj_mod_path,
+                                                'spiders', 'test_name.py'),
+                                           r'allowed_domains\s*=\s*\[\'(.+)\'\]').group(1))
+        self.assertEqual('http://%s/' % domain,
+                         self.find_in_file(join(self.proj_mod_path,
+                                                'spiders', 'test_name.py'),
+                                           r'start_urls\s*=\s*\[\'(.+)\'\]').group(1))
+
+    def test_url_schema(self):
+        self.test_url('http://test.com', 'test.com')
+
+    def test_url_path(self):
+        self.test_url('test.com/some/other/page', 'test.com')
+
+    def test_url_schema_path(self):
+        self.test_url('https://test.com/some/other/page', 'test.com')
+
 
 class GenspiderStandaloneCommandTest(ProjectTest):