diff --git a/ApiVisualEditor.php b/ApiVisualEditor.php
index 4d5f4f1d3d..5ef8e19415 100644
--- a/ApiVisualEditor.php
+++ b/ApiVisualEditor.php
@@ -289,14 +289,8 @@ class ApiVisualEditor extends ApiBase {
 
 		$isSafeAction = in_array( $params['paction'], self::$SAFE_ACTIONS, true );
 
-		$availableNamespaces = $this->veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
-		if ( !$isSafeAction && (
-			!isset( $availableNamespaces[$title->getNamespace()] ) ||
-			!$availableNamespaces[$title->getNamespace()]
-		) ) {
-
-			$this->dieUsage( "VisualEditor is not enabled in namespace " .
-				$title->getNamespace(), 'novenamespace' );
+		if ( !$isSafeAction ) {
+			$this->checkAllowedNamespace( $title->getNamespace() );
 		}
 
 		$parserParams = [];
@@ -632,6 +626,34 @@ class ApiVisualEditor extends ApiBase {
 		$this->getResult()->addValue( null, $this->getModuleName(), $result );
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Check if the request is allowed to proceed in the current namespace, and abort if not
+	 *
+	 * @param int $namespaceId Namespace ID
+	 */
+	public function checkAllowedNamespace( $namespaceId ) {
+		if ( !self::isAllowedNamespace( $this->veConfig, $namespaceId ) ) {
+			$this->dieUsage( "VisualEditor is not enabled in '" .
+				MWNamespace::getCanonicalName( $namespaceId ) . "' namespace ",
+			'novenamespace' );
+		}
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Check if the configured allowed namespaces include the specified namespace
+	 *
+	 * @param Config $config Configuration object
+	 * @param int $namespaceId Namespace ID
+	 * @return boolean
+	 */
+	public static function isAllowedNamespace( Config $config, $namespaceId ) {
+		$availableNamespaces = $config->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
+		$canonicalName = MWNamespace::getCanonicalName( $namespaceId );
+		return ( isset( $availableNamespaces[$namespaceId] ) && $availableNamespaces[$namespaceId] ) ||
+			 ( isset( $availableNamespaces[$canonicalName] ) && $availableNamespaces[$canonicalName] );
+
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Gets the relevant HTML for the latest log entry on a given title, including a full log link.
 	 *
diff --git a/ApiVisualEditorEdit.php b/ApiVisualEditorEdit.php
index b334256e4b..8d315811c2 100644
--- a/ApiVisualEditorEdit.php
+++ b/ApiVisualEditorEdit.php
@@ -122,16 +122,12 @@ class ApiVisualEditorEdit extends ApiVisualEditor {
 	public function execute() {
 		$user = $this->getUser();
 		$params = $this->extractRequestParams();
-		$page = Title::newFromText( $params['page'] );
-		if ( !$page ) {
+		$title = Title::newFromText( $params['page'] );
+		if ( !$title ) {
 			$this->dieUsageMsg( 'invalidtitle', $params['page'] );
 		}
-		$availableNamespaces = $this->veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
-		if ( !isset( $availableNamespaces[$page->getNamespace()] ) ||
-			!$availableNamespaces[$page->getNamespace()] ) {
-			$this->dieUsage( "VisualEditor is not enabled in namespace " .
-				$page->getNamespace(), 'novenamespace' );
-		}
+
+		$this->checkAllowedNamespace( $title->getNamespace() );
 
 		$parserParams = [];
 		if ( isset( $params['oldid'] ) ) {
@@ -149,13 +145,13 @@ class ApiVisualEditorEdit extends ApiVisualEditor {
 				$this->dieUsage( 'No cached serialization found with that key', 'badcachekey' );
 			}
 		} else {
-			$wikitext = $this->postHTML( $page, $html, $parserParams, $params['etag'] );
+			$wikitext = $this->postHTML( $title, $html, $parserParams, $params['etag'] );
 			if ( $wikitext === false ) {
 				$this->dieUsage( 'Error contacting the Parsoid/RESTbase server', 'docserver' );
 			}
 		}
 
-		$saveresult = $this->saveWikitext( $page, $wikitext, $params );
+		$saveresult = $this->saveWikitext( $title, $wikitext, $params );
 		$editStatus = $saveresult['edit']['result'];
 
 		// Error
@@ -184,17 +180,17 @@ class ApiVisualEditorEdit extends ApiVisualEditor {
 					} );
 				}
 			} else {
-				$newRevId = $page->getLatestRevId();
+				$newRevId = $title->getLatestRevId();
 			}
 
 			// Return result of parseWikitext instead of saveWikitext so that the
 			// frontend can update the page rendering without a refresh.
-			$result = $this->parseWikitext( $page, $newRevId );
+			$result = $this->parseWikitext( $title, $newRevId );
 			if ( $result === false ) {
 				$this->dieUsage( 'Error contacting the Parsoid/RESTBase server', 'docserver' );
 			}
 
-			$result['isRedirect'] = $page->isRedirect();
+			$result['isRedirect'] = $title->isRedirect();
 
 			if ( class_exists( 'FlaggablePageView' ) ) {
 				$view = FlaggablePageView::singleton();
@@ -207,12 +203,12 @@ class ApiVisualEditorEdit extends ApiVisualEditor {
 					[
 						'diff' => null,
 						'oldid' => '',
-						'title' => $page->getPrefixedText(),
+						'title' => $title->getPrefixedText(),
 						'action' => 'view'
 					] + $this->getRequest()->getValues()
 				);
 				$view->getContext()->setRequest( $newRequest );
-				RequestContext::getMain()->setTitle( $page );
+				RequestContext::getMain()->setTitle( $title );
 
 				// The two parameters here are references but we don't care
 				// about what FlaggedRevs does with them.
diff --git a/VisualEditor.hooks.php b/VisualEditor.hooks.php
index 5dc3c0536e..47458ac6a0 100644
--- a/VisualEditor.hooks.php
+++ b/VisualEditor.hooks.php
@@ -125,8 +125,6 @@ class VisualEditorHooks {
 
 		$title = $article->getTitle();
 
-		$availableNamespaces = $veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
-
 		$params = $req->getValues();
 
 		if ( isset( $params['venoscript'] ) ) {
@@ -144,7 +142,7 @@ class VisualEditorHooks {
 			!$veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorUseSingleEditTab' ) ||
 			self::getUserEditor( $user, $req ) === 'wikitext' ||
 			!$title->quickUserCan( 'edit' ) ||
-			!$title->inNamespaces( array_keys( array_filter( $availableNamespaces ) ) ) ||
+			!ApiVisualEditor::isAllowedNamespace( $veConfig, $title->getNamespace() ) ||
 			$title->getContentModel() !== CONTENT_MODEL_WIKITEXT ||
 			// Known parameters that VE does not handle
 			// TODO: Other params too? See identical list in ve.init.mw.DesktopArticleTarget.init.js
@@ -272,9 +270,8 @@ class VisualEditorHooks {
 			return true;
 		}
 
-		$availableNamespaces = $config->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
 		$title = $skin->getRelevantTitle();
-		$namespaceEnabled = $title->inNamespaces( array_keys( array_filter( $availableNamespaces ) ) );
+		$namespaceEnabled = ApiVisualEditor::isAllowedNamespace( $config, $title->getNamespace() );
 		$pageContentModel = $title->getContentModel();
 		// Don't exit if this page isn't VE-enabled, since we should still
 		// change "Edit" to "Edit source".
@@ -472,10 +469,8 @@ class VisualEditorHooks {
 
 		$result['editsection']['text'] = $skin->msg( $sourceEditSection )->inLanguage( $lang )->text();
 
-		$availableNamespaces = $config->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
-
 		// add VE edit section in VE available namespaces
-		if ( $title->inNamespaces( array_keys( array_filter( $availableNamespaces ) ) ) ) {
+		if ( ApiVisualEditor::isAllowedNamespace( $config, $title->getNamespace() ) ) {
 			$veEditSection = $tabMessages['editsection'] !== null ?
 				$tabMessages['editsection'] : 'editsection';
 			$veLink = [
@@ -676,7 +671,12 @@ class VisualEditorHooks {
 		$thumbLimits = $coreConfig->get( 'ThumbLimits' );
 		$veConfig = ConfigFactory::getDefaultInstance()->makeConfig( 'visualeditor' );
 		$availableNamespaces = $veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces' );
-		$enabledNamespaces = array_keys( array_filter( $availableNamespaces ) );
+		$enabledNamespaces = array_map( function ( $namespace ) {
+			// Convert canonical namespace names to IDs
+			return is_numeric( $namespace ) ?
+				$namespace :
+				MWNamespace::getCanonicalIndex( strtolower( $namespace ) );
+		}, array_keys( array_filter( $availableNamespaces ) ) );
 
 		$vars['wgVisualEditorConfig'] = [
 			'disableForAnons' => $veConfig->get( 'VisualEditorDisableForAnons' ),
diff --git a/extension.json b/extension.json
index 02bf29b3c6..5bf508c941 100644
--- a/extension.json
+++ b/extension.json
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@
 		"VisualEditorAutoAccountEnable": false,
 		"VisualEditorTransitionDefault": false,
 		"VisualEditorAvailableNamespaces": {
-			"2": true,
+			"User": true,
 			"_merge_strategy": "array_plus"
 		},
 		"VisualEditorSkinToolbarScrollOffset": [],