diff --git a/qt/po/.gitignore b/qt/po/.gitignore
index 86a50aac7..8778829ac 100644
--- a/qt/po/.gitignore
+++ b/qt/po/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 .build
 repo
 ftl
-strings.json
+strings*.json
diff --git a/qt/po/scripts/extract_po_string.py b/qt/po/scripts/extract_po_string.py
index 398d83808..adbea66b5 100644
--- a/qt/po/scripts/extract_po_string.py
+++ b/qt/po/scripts/extract_po_string.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ from fluent.syntax.ast import Message, TextElement, Identifier, Pattern, Junk
 # the templates folder inside the ftl repo
 repo_templates_dir = sys.argv[1]
 assert os.path.abspath(repo_templates_dir).endswith("templates")
-strings = json.load(open("strings.json"))
+strings = json.load(open("strings.json" if len(sys.argv) < 3 else sys.argv[2]))
 plurals = json.load(open("plurals.json"))