diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index 65263a8dd..970d0f1cf 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 * Don't consider compile to i686 on x86_64 Windows cross compiling in [#923](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/923)
+* Accept `-i x.y` and `-i python-x.y` in `maturin build` command in [#925](https://github.com/PyO3/maturin/pull/925)
 
 ## [0.12.16] - 2022-05-16
 
diff --git a/src/build_options.rs b/src/build_options.rs
index 56760f5f3..52a31eb13 100644
--- a/src/build_options.rs
+++ b/src/build_options.rs
@@ -660,9 +660,20 @@ fn find_interpreter_in_sysconfig(
             .context("Invalid python interpreter")?
             .to_string_lossy();
         let (python_impl, python_ver) = if let Some(ver) = python.strip_prefix("pypy") {
-            (InterpreterKind::PyPy, ver)
+            (InterpreterKind::PyPy, ver.strip_prefix('-').unwrap_or(ver))
         } else if let Some(ver) = python.strip_prefix("python") {
-            (InterpreterKind::CPython, ver)
+            (
+                InterpreterKind::CPython,
+                ver.strip_prefix('-').unwrap_or(ver),
+            )
+        } else if python
+            .chars()
+            .next()
+            .map(|c| c.is_ascii_digit())
+            .unwrap_or(false)
+        {
+            // Eg: -i 3.9 without interpreter kind, assume it's CPython
+            (InterpreterKind::CPython, &*python)
         } else {
             bail!("Unsupported Python interpreter: {}", python);
         };