diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 660e04b..d2a4c87 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -69,6 +69,23 @@ FullName.propTypes = {
 register(FullName, 'full-name');
 ```
 
+### Creating a CustomElements without registering a tag name
+
+If authoring a custom-elements library, you might want to expose your CustomElements without registering their tag name, to let your users register their own tags.
+
+This can be achieved by calling the `toCustomElements` function on the default export:
+
+```js
+import register from 'preact-custom-element'
+
+function MyComponent({ name = "World" }) {
+  return <span>Hello {name}!</span>  
+}
+
+export const MyElement = register.toCustomElement(MyComponent, ['name'])
+```
+
+`toCustomElement` has the same signature as `register`, omitting the second parameter (tag name).
 
 ## Related
 
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 42318d7..9cb4453 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { h, cloneElement, render, hydrate } from 'preact';
 
-export default function register(Component, tagName, propNames, options) {
+function toCustomElement(Component, propNames, options) {
 	function PreactElement() {
 		const inst = Reflect.construct(HTMLElement, [], PreactElement);
 		inst._vdomComponent = Component;
@@ -49,12 +49,20 @@ export default function register(Component, tagName, propNames, options) {
 		});
 	});
 
+	return PreactElement;
+}
+
+export default function register(Component, tagName, propNames, options) {
+	const PreactElement = toCustomElement(Component, propNames, options);
+
 	return customElements.define(
 		tagName || Component.tagName || Component.displayName || Component.name,
 		PreactElement
 	);
 }
 
+register.toCustomElement = toCustomElement;
+
 function ContextProvider(props) {
 	this.getChildContext = () => props.context;
 	// eslint-disable-next-line no-unused-vars
diff --git a/src/index.test.jsx b/src/index.test.jsx
index 00da646..5b5154a 100644
--- a/src/index.test.jsx
+++ b/src/index.test.jsx
@@ -245,4 +245,32 @@ describe('web components', () => {
 		});
 		assert.equal(getShadowHTML(), '<p>Active theme: sunny</p>');
 	});
+
+	function ManualRegistration() {
+		return <div>I'm manually registered</div>;
+	}
+
+	it('allows manual deferred registration by just exposing the element', async () => {
+		const CustomElement = registerElement.toCustomElement(
+			ManualRegistration,
+			[],
+			{ shadow: false }
+		);
+
+		const el = document.createElement('x-manually-registered');
+
+		root.appendChild(el);
+		assert.equal(
+			root.innerHTML,
+			'<x-manually-registered></x-manually-registered>'
+		);
+
+		window.customElements.define('x-manually-registered', CustomElement);
+
+		root.appendChild(el);
+		assert.equal(
+			root.innerHTML,
+			"<x-manually-registered><div>I'm manually registered</div></x-manually-registered>"
+		);
+	});
 });