diff --git a/scrapy/utils/iterators.py b/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
index 789da1392..3b504e56a 100644
--- a/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
+++ b/scrapy/utils/iterators.py
@@ -22,25 +22,41 @@ def xmliter(obj, nodename):
     """
     nodename_patt = re.escape(nodename)
 
-    HEADER_START_RE = re.compile(fr'^(.*?)<\s*{nodename_patt}(?:\s|>)', re.S)
+    DOCUMENT_HEADER_RE = re.compile(r'<\?xml[^>]+>\s*', re.S)
     HEADER_END_RE = re.compile(fr'<\s*/{nodename_patt}\s*>', re.S)
+    END_TAG_RE = re.compile(r'<\s*/([^\s>]+)\s*>', re.S)
+    NAMESPACE_RE = re.compile(r'((xmlns[:A-Za-z]*)=[^>\s]+)', re.S)
     text = _body_or_str(obj)
 
-    header_start = re.search(HEADER_START_RE, text)
-    header_start = header_start.group(1).strip() if header_start else ''
-    header_end = re_rsearch(HEADER_END_RE, text)
-    header_end = text[header_end[1]:].strip() if header_end else ''
+    document_header = re.search(DOCUMENT_HEADER_RE, text)
+    document_header = document_header.group().strip() if document_header else ''
+    header_end_idx = re_rsearch(HEADER_END_RE, text)
+    header_end = text[header_end_idx[1]:].strip() if header_end_idx else ''
+    namespaces = {}
+    if header_end:
+        for tagname in reversed(re.findall(END_TAG_RE, header_end)):
+            tag = re.search(fr'<\s*{tagname}.*?xmlns[:=][^>]*>', text[:header_end_idx[1]], re.S)
+            if tag:
+                namespaces.update(reversed(x) for x in re.findall(NAMESPACE_RE, tag.group()))
 
     r = re.compile(fr'<{nodename_patt}[\s>].*?</{nodename_patt}>', re.DOTALL)
     for match in r.finditer(text):
-        nodetext = header_start + match.group() + header_end
-        yield Selector(text=nodetext, type='xml').xpath('//' + nodename)[0]
+        nodetext = (
+            document_header
+            + match.group().replace(
+                nodename,
+                f'{nodename} {" ".join(namespaces.values())}',
+                1
+            )
+            + header_end
+        )
+        yield Selector(text=nodetext, type='xml')
 
 
 def xmliter_lxml(obj, nodename, namespace=None, prefix='x'):
     from lxml import etree
     reader = _StreamReader(obj)
-    tag = f'{{{namespace}}}{nodename}'if namespace else nodename
+    tag = f'{{{namespace}}}{nodename}' if namespace else nodename
     iterable = etree.iterparse(reader, tag=tag, encoding=reader.encoding)
     selxpath = '//' + (f'{prefix}:{nodename}' if namespace else nodename)
     for _, node in iterable:
diff --git a/tests/test_utils_iterators.py b/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
index 79f5a2bbe..f84cb2956 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils_iterators.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import os
 
+from pytest import mark
 from twisted.trial import unittest
 
 from scrapy.utils.iterators import csviter, xmliter, _body_or_str, xmliter_lxml
@@ -134,7 +135,6 @@ class XmliterTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         """
         response = XmlResponse(url='http://mydummycompany.com', body=body)
         my_iter = self.xmliter(response, 'item')
-
         node = next(my_iter)
         node.register_namespace('g', 'http://base.google.com/ns/1.0')
         self.assertEqual(node.xpath('title/text()').getall(), ['Item 1'])
@@ -150,6 +150,55 @@ class XmliterTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(node.xpath('id/text()').getall(), [])
         self.assertEqual(node.xpath('price/text()').getall(), [])
 
+    def test_xmliter_namespaced_nodename(self):
+        body = b"""
+            <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+            <rss version="2.0" xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0">
+                <channel>
+                <title>My Dummy Company</title>
+                <link>http://www.mydummycompany.com</link>
+                <description>This is a dummy company. We do nothing.</description>
+                <item>
+                    <title>Item 1</title>
+                    <description>This is item 1</description>
+                    <link>http://www.mydummycompany.com/items/1</link>
+                    <g:image_link>http://www.mydummycompany.com/images/item1.jpg</g:image_link>
+                    <g:id>ITEM_1</g:id>
+                    <g:price>400</g:price>
+                </item>
+                </channel>
+            </rss>
+        """
+        response = XmlResponse(url='http://mydummycompany.com', body=body)
+        my_iter = self.xmliter(response, 'g:image_link')
+        node = next(my_iter)
+        node.register_namespace('g', 'http://base.google.com/ns/1.0')
+        self.assertEqual(node.xpath('text()').extract(), ['http://www.mydummycompany.com/images/item1.jpg'])
+
+    def test_xmliter_namespaced_nodename_missing(self):
+        body = b"""
+            <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+            <rss version="2.0" xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0">
+                <channel>
+                <title>My Dummy Company</title>
+                <link>http://www.mydummycompany.com</link>
+                <description>This is a dummy company. We do nothing.</description>
+                <item>
+                    <title>Item 1</title>
+                    <description>This is item 1</description>
+                    <link>http://www.mydummycompany.com/items/1</link>
+                    <g:image_link>http://www.mydummycompany.com/images/item1.jpg</g:image_link>
+                    <g:id>ITEM_1</g:id>
+                    <g:price>400</g:price>
+                </item>
+                </channel>
+            </rss>
+        """
+        response = XmlResponse(url='http://mydummycompany.com', body=body)
+        my_iter = self.xmliter(response, 'g:link_image')
+        with self.assertRaises(StopIteration):
+            next(my_iter)
+
     def test_xmliter_exception(self):
         body = (
             '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'
@@ -183,6 +232,10 @@ class XmliterTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 class LxmlXmliterTestCase(XmliterTestCase):
     xmliter = staticmethod(xmliter_lxml)
 
+    @mark.xfail(reason='known bug of the current implementation')
+    def test_xmliter_namespaced_nodename(self):
+        super().test_xmliter_namespaced_nodename()
+
     def test_xmliter_iterate_namespace(self):
         body = b"""
             <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>