diff --git a/packages/react/src/Trans.test.tsx b/packages/react/src/Trans.test.tsx
index 0b89b813b..26015daa8 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/Trans.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/Trans.test.tsx
@@ -108,6 +108,33 @@ describe("Trans component", function () {
     expect(translation).toEqual("Hello <strong>John</strong>")
   })
 
+  it("should render named component in components", function () {
+    const translation = html(
+      <Trans
+        id="Read <named>the docs</named>"
+        components={{ named: <a href="/docs" /> }}
+      />
+    )
+    expect(translation).toEqual(`Read <a href="/docs">the docs</a>`)
+  })
+
+  it("should render nested named components in components", function () {
+    const translation = html(
+      <Trans
+        id="Read <link>the <strong>docs</strong></link>"
+        components={{ link: <a href="/docs" />, strong: <strong /> }}
+      />
+    )
+    expect(translation).toEqual(`Read <a href="/docs">the <strong>docs</strong></a>`)
+  })
+
+  it("should render non-named component in components", function () {
+    const translation = html(
+      <Trans id="Read <0>the docs</0>" components={{ 0: <a href="/docs" /> }} />
+    )
+    expect(translation).toEqual(`Read <a href="/docs">the docs</a>`)
+  })
+
   it("should render translation inside custom component", function () {
     const Component = (props) => <p className="lead">{props.children}</p>
     const html1 = html(<Trans component={Component} id="Original" />)
diff --git a/packages/react/src/format.test.tsx b/packages/react/src/format.test.tsx
index ca7f9e32b..016ccf506 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/format.test.tsx
+++ b/packages/react/src/format.test.tsx
@@ -30,6 +30,25 @@ describe("formatElements", function () {
     ).toEqual('<a href="/about">About</a>')
   })
 
+  it("should preserve named element props", function () {
+    expect(
+      html(
+        formatElements("<named>About</named>", { named: <a href="/about" /> })
+      )
+    ).toEqual('<a href="/about">About</a>')
+  })
+
+  it("should preserve nested named element props", function () {
+    expect(
+      html(
+        formatElements("<named>About <b>us</b></named>", {
+          named: <a href="/about" />,
+          b: <strong />,
+        })
+      )
+    ).toEqual('<a href="/about">About <strong>us</strong></a>')
+  })
+
   it("should format nested elements", function () {
     expect(
       html(
@@ -52,35 +71,54 @@ describe("formatElements", function () {
     )
   })
 
-  it("should ignore non existing element", function() {
+  it("should ignore non existing element", function () {
     expect(html(formatElements("<0>First</0>"))).toEqual("First")
     expect(html(formatElements("<0>First</0>Second"))).toEqual("FirstSecond")
-    expect(html(formatElements("First<0>Second</0>Third")))
-        .toEqual("FirstSecondThird")
+    expect(html(formatElements("First<0>Second</0>Third"))).toEqual(
+      "FirstSecondThird"
+    )
     expect(html(formatElements("Fir<0/>st"))).toEqual("First")
+    expect(html(formatElements("<tag>text</tag>"))).toEqual("text")
+    expect(html(formatElements("text <br/>"))).toEqual("text ")
   })
 
-  it("should ignore incorrect tags and print them as a text", function() {
+  it("should ignore incorrect tags and print them as a text", function () {
     expect(html(formatElements("text</0>"))).toEqual("text&lt;/0&gt;")
     expect(html(formatElements("text<0 />"))).toEqual("text&lt;0 /&gt;")
-    expect(html(formatElements("<tag>text</tag>")))
-        .toEqual("&lt;tag&gt;text&lt;/tag&gt;")
-    expect(html(formatElements("text <br/>"))).toEqual("text &lt;br/&gt;")
   })
 
-  it("should ignore unpaired element used as paired", function() {
-    expect(html(formatElements("<0>text</0>", {0: <br />}))).toEqual("text")
+  it("should ignore unpaired element used as paired", function () {
+    expect(html(formatElements("<0>text</0>", { 0: <br /> }))).toEqual("text")
+  })
+
+  it("should ignore unpaired named element used as paired", function () {
+    expect(
+      html(formatElements("<named>text</named>", { named: <br /> }))
+    ).toEqual("text")
+  })
+
+  it("should ignore paired element used as unpaired", function () {
+    expect(html(formatElements("text<0/>", { 0: <span /> }))).toEqual(
+      "text<span></span>"
+    )
   })
 
-  it("should ignore paired element used as unpaired", function() {
-    expect(html(formatElements("text<0/>", {0: <span />})))
-        .toEqual("text<span></span>")
+  it("should ignore paired named element used as unpaired", function () {
+    expect(html(formatElements("text<named/>", { named: <span /> }))).toEqual(
+      "text<span></span>"
+    )
   })
 
-  it("should create two children with different keys", function() {
-    const cleanPrefix = (str: string): number => Number.parseInt(str.replace("$lingui$_", ""), 10)
-    const childElements = formatElements("<div><0/><0/></div>", { 0: <span>hi</span> }) as Array<any>
-    const childKeys = childElements.map(el => el?.key).filter(Boolean);
+  it("should create two children with different keys", function () {
+    const cleanPrefix = (str: string): number =>
+      Number.parseInt(str.replace("$lingui$_", ""), 10)
+    const elements = formatElements("<div><0/><0/></div>", {
+      0: <span>hi</span>,
+    }) as Array<React.ReactElement>
+
+    expect(elements).toHaveLength(1)
+    const childElements = elements[0].props.children
+    const childKeys = childElements.map((el) => el?.key).filter(Boolean)
     expect(cleanPrefix(childKeys[0])).toBeLessThan(cleanPrefix(childKeys[1]))
   })
 })
diff --git a/packages/react/src/format.ts b/packages/react/src/format.ts
index 2c5f814a5..b46210ae3 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/format.ts
+++ b/packages/react/src/format.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import React from "react"
 
-// match <0>paired</0> and <1/> unpaired tags
-const tagRe = /<(\d+)>(.*?)<\/\1>|<(\d+)\/>/
+// match <tag>paired</tag> and <tag/> unpaired tags
+const tagRe = /<([a-zA-Z0-9]+)>(.*?)<\/\1>|<([a-zA-Z0-9]+)\/>/
 const nlRe = /(?:\r\n|\r|\n)/g
 
 // For HTML, certain tags should omit their close tag. We keep a whitelist for
@@ -22,13 +22,13 @@ const voidElementTags = {
   source: true,
   track: true,
   wbr: true,
-  menuitem: true
+  menuitem: true,
 }
 
 /**
  * `formatElements` - parse string and return tree of react elements
  *
- * `value` is string to be formatted with <0>Paired<0/> or <0/> (unpaired)
+ * `value` is string to be formatted with <tag>Paired<tag/> or <tag/> (unpaired)
  * placeholders. `elements` is a array of react elements which indexes
  * correspond to element indexes in formatted string
  */
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ function formatElements(
   value: string,
   elements: { [key: string]: React.ReactElement<any> } = {}
 ): string | Array<any> {
-  const uniqueId = makeCounter(0, '$lingui$')
+  const uniqueId = makeCounter(0, "$lingui$")
   const parts = value.replace(nlRe, "").split(tagRe)
 
   // no inline elements, return
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ function getElements(parts) {
 
   const [paired, children, unpaired, after] = parts.slice(0, 4)
 
-  return [[parseInt(paired || unpaired), children || "", after]].concat(
+  return [[paired || unpaired, children || "", after]].concat(
     getElements(parts.slice(4, parts.length))
   )
 }
diff --git a/website/docs/misc/react-intl.md b/website/docs/misc/react-intl.md
index a6a87607f..5549640c0 100644
--- a/website/docs/misc/react-intl.md
+++ b/website/docs/misc/react-intl.md
@@ -55,14 +55,12 @@ In [react-intl](https://github.com/yahoo/react-intl), this would be translated a
 ``` jsx
 <Trans
     id='msg.docs'
-    message='Read the <0>documentation</0>.'
-    components={[
-        <a href="/docs" />
-    ]}
+    message='Read the <link>documentation</link>.'
+    components={{ link: <a href="/docs" />}}
 />
 ```
 
-and the translator gets the message in one piece: `Read the <0>documentation</0>`.
+and the translator gets the message in one piece: `Read the <link>documentation</link>`.
 
 However, let's go yet another level deeper.
 
diff --git a/website/docs/ref/react.md b/website/docs/ref/react.md
index eb95966b6..9ba3dc5a4 100644
--- a/website/docs/ref/react.md
+++ b/website/docs/ref/react.md
@@ -92,9 +92,9 @@ It's also possible to use `Trans` component directly without macros. In that cas
 
 // number of tag corresponds to index in `components` prop
 <Trans
-  id="Read <0>Description</0> below."
-  components={[<Link to="/docs" />]}
-/>;
+  id="Read <link>Description</link> below."
+  components={{ link: <a href="/docs" /> }}
+/>
 ```
 
 #### Plurals