diff --git a/src/vmspawn/vmspawn-util.c b/src/vmspawn/vmspawn-util.c
index c5ab40a0d2..8ecd266000 100644
--- a/src/vmspawn/vmspawn-util.c
+++ b/src/vmspawn/vmspawn-util.c
@@ -32,11 +32,11 @@ static const char* const architecture_to_qemu_table[_ARCHITECTURE_MAX] = {
         [ARCHITECTURE_X86_64]      = "x86_64",      /* differs from our name */
         [ARCHITECTURE_X86]         = "i386",        /* differs from our name */
         [ARCHITECTURE_LOONGARCH64] = "loongarch64",
-        [ARCHITECTURE_MIPS64_LE]   = "mips",        /* differs from our name */
-        [ARCHITECTURE_MIPS_LE]     = "mips",        /* differs from our name */
+        [ARCHITECTURE_MIPS64_LE]   = "mips64el",    /* differs from our name */
+        [ARCHITECTURE_MIPS_LE]     = "mipsel",      /* differs from our name */
         [ARCHITECTURE_PARISC]      = "hppa",        /* differs from our name */
-        [ARCHITECTURE_PPC64_LE]    = "ppc",         /* differs from our name */
-        [ARCHITECTURE_PPC64]       = "ppc",         /* differs from our name */
+        [ARCHITECTURE_PPC64_LE]    = "ppc64",       /* differs from our name; qemu-system-ppc64 runs LE guests too */
+        [ARCHITECTURE_PPC64]       = "ppc64",       /* differs from our name */
         [ARCHITECTURE_PPC]         = "ppc",
         [ARCHITECTURE_RISCV32]     = "riscv32",
         [ARCHITECTURE_RISCV64]     = "riscv64",