diff --git a/infer/src/backend/rearrange.ml b/infer/src/backend/rearrange.ml
index cde56f2f9..7165d2a2c 100644
--- a/infer/src/backend/rearrange.ml
+++ b/infer/src/backend/rearrange.ml
@@ -617,7 +617,14 @@ let prop_iter_add_hpred_footprint_to_prop pname tenv prop (lexp, typ) inst =
 let add_guarded_by_constraints prop lexp pdesc =
   let pname = Cfg.Procdesc.get_proc_name pdesc in
   let excluded_guardedby_string str =
-    str = "ui_thread" in (* don't warn on @GuardedBy("ui_thread") *)
+    (* nothing with a space in it can be a valid Java expression, shouldn't warn *)
+    let is_invalid_exp_str str =
+      String.contains str ' ' in
+    (* don't warn on @GuardedBy("ui_thread") in any form *)
+    let is_ui_thread str =
+      let lowercase_str = String.lowercase str in
+      lowercase_str = "ui_thread" || lowercase_str = "ui-thread" || lowercase_str = "uithread" in
+    is_invalid_exp_str str || is_ui_thread str in
   let guarded_by_str_is_this guarded_by_str =
     string_is_suffix "this" guarded_by_str in
   let guarded_by_str_is_class guarded_by_str class_str =
diff --git a/infer/tests/codetoanalyze/java/infer/GuardedByExample.java b/infer/tests/codetoanalyze/java/infer/GuardedByExample.java
index 83da3e419..b79bde7fb 100644
--- a/infer/tests/codetoanalyze/java/infer/GuardedByExample.java
+++ b/infer/tests/codetoanalyze/java/infer/GuardedByExample.java
@@ -49,9 +49,6 @@ public class GuardedByExample {
   @GuardedBy("mReadWriteLock")
   Object i = new Object();
 
-  @GuardedBy("ui_thread")
-  Object t = new Object();
-
   private static Object sLock = new Object();
 
   @GuardedBy("sLock")
@@ -183,10 +180,6 @@ public class GuardedByExample {
     }
   }
 
-  void readTok() {
-    this.t.toString();
-  }
-
   void readWriteLockOk() {
     try (AutoCloseableReadWriteUpdateLock lock = mReadWriteLock) {
       this.i.toString();
@@ -293,6 +286,29 @@ public class GuardedByExample {
   }
 
 
+  @GuardedBy("ui_thread")
+  Object uiThread1;
+  @GuardedBy("ui-thread")
+  Object uiThread2;
+  @GuardedBy("uithread")
+  Object uiThread3;
+
+  @GuardedBy("something that's clearly not an expression")
+  Object nonExpression;
+
+  // tests for not reporting false alarms on unrecognized GuardedBy strings
+  void accessUnrecognizedGuardedByFieldsOk() {
+    uiThread1 = new Object();
+    uiThread1.toString();
+    uiThread2 = new Object();
+    uiThread2.toString();
+    uiThread3 = new Object();
+    uiThread3.toString();
+    nonExpression = new Object();
+    nonExpression.toString();
+  }
+
+
   // TODO: report on these cases
   /*
   public void unguardedCallSiteBad1() {