diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
index 13b4d7fc9..485ed7c62 100644
--- a/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/main/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoder.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import org.metafacture.framework.helpers.DefaultXmlPipe;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -68,6 +69,7 @@ public final class SimpleXmlEncoder extends DefaultStreamPipe<ObjectReceiver<Str
 
     private static final String XML_HEADER = "<?xml version=\"%s\" encoding=\"%s\"?>\n";
     private static final String XMLNS_MARKER = " xmlns";
+    private static final String DEFAULT = "__default";
 
     private final StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
 
@@ -141,9 +143,7 @@ public void setNamespaceFile(final String file) {
         catch (final IOException e) {
             throw new MetafactureException("Failed to load namespaces list", e);
         }
-        for (final Entry<Object, Object> entry : properties.entrySet()) {
-            namespaces.put(entry.getKey().toString(), entry.getValue().toString());
-        }
+        propertiesToMap(properties);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -159,9 +159,7 @@ public void setNamespaceFile(final URL url) {
         catch (final IOException e) {
             throw new MetafactureException("Failed to load namespaces list", e);
         }
-        for (final Entry<Object, Object> entry : properties.entrySet()) {
-            namespaces.put(entry.getKey().toString(), entry.getValue().toString());
-        }
+        propertiesToMap(properties);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -218,6 +216,25 @@ public void setNamespaces(final Map<String, String> namespaces) {
         this.namespaces = namespaces;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Sets the namespace(s).
+     *
+     * @param namespacesString the namespaces as a String. It allows Java Properties
+     *                         structure, i.e. a key-value structure where the key is separated from the value
+     *                         by an equal sign '=', a colon ':' or a white space ' '. Multiple namespaces
+     *                         are separated by a line feed '\n'
+     */
+    public void setNamespaces(final String namespacesString) {
+        final Properties properties = new Properties();
+        try (StringReader sr = new StringReader(namespacesString)) {
+            properties.load(sr);
+        }
+        catch (final IOException e) {
+            throw new MetafactureException("Failed to create namespace list");
+        }
+        propertiesToMap(properties);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Sets the attribute marker.
      *
@@ -256,7 +273,7 @@ else if (atStreamStart) {
     private void addNamespacesToElement() {
         for (final Entry<String, String> namespace : namespaces.entrySet()) {
             final String key = namespace.getKey();
-            final String name = XMLNS_MARKER + (key.isEmpty() ? "" : ":") + key;
+            final String name = XMLNS_MARKER + (isDefaultNamespace(key) ? "" : ":" + key);
             element.addAttribute(name, namespace.getValue());
         }
     }
@@ -326,7 +343,7 @@ private void writeHeader() {
             builder.append(rootTag);
             for (final Entry<String, String> entry : namespaces.entrySet()) {
                 builder.append(XMLNS_MARKER);
-                if (!entry.getKey().isEmpty()) {
+                if (!isDefaultNamespace(entry.getKey())) {
                     builder.append(':');
                     builder.append(entry.getKey());
                 }
@@ -351,6 +368,14 @@ protected static void writeEscaped(final StringBuilder builder, final String str
         builder.append(XmlUtil.escape(str, false));
     }
 
+    private boolean isDefaultNamespace(final String ns) {
+        return ns.isEmpty() || ns.equals(DEFAULT);
+    }
+
+    private void propertiesToMap(final Properties properties) {
+        properties.forEach((k, v) -> namespaces.put(k.toString(), v.toString()));
+    }
+
     /**
      * An XML element.
      *
diff --git a/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
index d4b2c6197..580a1ff5b 100644
--- a/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
+++ b/metafacture-xml/src/test/java/org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest.java
@@ -112,6 +112,15 @@ public void shouldAddNamespaceToRootElement() {
                 getResultXml());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void shouldAddMultipleNamespacesFromParameterToRootElement() {
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaces("__default=http://default.org/ns\nns=http://example.org/ns\nns1=http://example.org/ns1");
+
+        emitEmptyRecord();
+
+        assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><records xmlns:ns=\"http://example.org/ns\" xmlns=\"http://default.org/ns\" xmlns:ns1=\"http://example.org/ns1\"><record /></records>",
+                getResultXml());
+    }
     @Test
     public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyAsDefaultNamespaceToRootTag() {
         final Map<String, String> namespaces = new HashMap<String, String>();
@@ -124,6 +133,18 @@ public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyAsDefaultNamespaceToRootTag() {
                 getResultXml());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void shouldAddNamespaceWithDefaultKeyAsDefaultNamespaceToRootTag() {
+        final Map<String, String> namespaces = new HashMap<String, String>();
+        namespaces.put("__default", "http://example.org/ns");
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaces(namespaces);
+
+        emitEmptyRecord();
+
+        assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><records xmlns=\"http://example.org/ns\"><record /></records>",
+                getResultXml());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyFromPropertiesFileAsDefaultNamespaceToRootTag() {
         simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaceFile("org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest_namespaces.properties");
@@ -170,6 +191,19 @@ public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyAsDefaultNamespaceToRecordTag() {
                 getResultXml());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void shouldAddNamespaceWithDefaultKeyAsDefaultNamespaceToRecordTag() {
+        final Map<String, String> namespaces = new HashMap<String, String>();
+        namespaces.put("__default", "http://example.org/ns");
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaces(namespaces);
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setWriteRootTag(false);
+
+        emitEmptyRecord();
+
+        assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><record  xmlns=\"http://example.org/ns\" />",
+                getResultXml());
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyFromPropertiesFileAsDefaultNamespaceToRecordTag() {
         simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaceFile("org/metafacture/xml/SimpleXmlEncoderTest_namespaces.properties");
@@ -180,6 +214,16 @@ public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyFromPropertiesFileAsDefaultNamespaceTo
         assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><record  xmlns=\"http://example.org/ns\" />",
                 getResultXml());
     }
+    @Test
+    public void shouldAddNamespaceWithEmptyKeyFromParameterAsDefaultNamespaceToRecordTag() {
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setNamespaces("=http://example.org/ns");
+        simpleXmlEncoder.setWriteRootTag(false);
+
+        emitEmptyRecord();
+
+        assertEquals("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><record  xmlns=\"http://example.org/ns\" />",
+                getResultXml());
+    }
 
     @Test
     public void testShouldEncodeUnnamedLiteralsAsText() {