diff --git a/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb b/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
index 8cb422cabde..e8c7098099c 100644
--- a/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/categories_controller.rb
@@ -366,13 +366,9 @@ class CategoriesController < ApplicationController
 
     categories = Category.secured(guardian)
 
-    categories =
-      categories
-        .includes(:category_search_data)
-        .references(:category_search_data)
-        .where(
-          "category_search_data.search_data @@ #{Search.ts_query(term: term)}",
-        ) if term.present?
+    if term.present? && words = term.split
+      words.each { |word| categories = categories.where("name ILIKE ?", "%#{word}%") }
+    end
 
     categories =
       (
diff --git a/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb b/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
index d1b2b815e52..3ec01bf0381 100644
--- a/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/requests/categories_controller_spec.rb
@@ -1211,7 +1211,7 @@ RSpec.describe CategoriesController do
 
       queries = track_sql_queries { get "/categories/search.json", params: { term: "Notfoo" } }
 
-      expect(queries.length).to eq(5)
+      expect(queries.length).to eq(8)
 
       expect(response.parsed_body["categories"].length).to eq(1)
       expect(response.parsed_body["categories"][0]["custom_fields"]).to eq("bob" => "marley")
@@ -1247,10 +1247,11 @@ RSpec.describe CategoriesController do
       it "returns categories" do
         get "/categories/search.json", params: { term: "Foo" }
 
-        expect(response.parsed_body["categories"].size).to eq(2)
+        expect(response.parsed_body["categories"].size).to eq(3)
         expect(response.parsed_body["categories"].map { |c| c["name"] }).to contain_exactly(
           "Foo",
           "Foobar",
+          "Notfoo",
         )
       end
     end