diff --git a/lib/xml2json.js b/lib/xml2json.js
index 912d2d1c..339863cd 100644
--- a/lib/xml2json.js
+++ b/lib/xml2json.js
@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@ function startElement(name, attrs) {
     }
 }
 
+function stripNamespaces(name, options){
+  return options.splitNamespaces ? name.split(':').pop() : name
+}
+
 function text(data) {
     currentObject[textNodeName()] = (currentObject[textNodeName()] || '') + data;
 }
@@ -142,9 +146,10 @@ module.exports = function(xml, _options) {
     _options = _options || {};
     var parser = new expat.Parser('UTF-8');
 
-    parser.on('startElement', startElement);
-    parser.on('text', text);
-    parser.on('endElement', endElement);
+
+    parser.on('startElement', (name, attrs) => { return startElement(stripNamespaces(name, options))})
+    parser.on('text', text)
+    parser.on('endElement', (name) => { return endElement(stripNamespaces(name, options)) })
 
     obj = currentObject = {};
     ancestors = [];