diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/misc/filenames.py b/Lib/fontTools/misc/filenames.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..87d67d608
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/misc/filenames.py
@@ -0,0 +1,207 @@
+"""
+User name to file name conversion.
+This was taken form the UFO 3 spec.
+"""
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from fontTools.misc.py23 import basestring, unicode
+
+
+illegalCharacters = "\" * + / : < > ? [ \ ] | \0".split(" ")
+illegalCharacters += [chr(i) for i in range(1, 32)]
+illegalCharacters += [chr(0x7F)]
+reservedFileNames = "CON PRN AUX CLOCK$ NUL A:-Z: COM1".lower().split(" ")
+reservedFileNames += "LPT1 LPT2 LPT3 COM2 COM3 COM4".lower().split(" ")
+maxFileNameLength = 255
+
+
+class NameTranslationError(Exception):
+	pass
+
+# ----------------------
+# User Name to File Name
+# ----------------------
+# This code was taken directly from the ufoNormalizer script in the unified-font-object repositry
+# (https://github.com/unified-font-object/)
+# ...which algorithm was taken directly from the UFO 3 specification
+
+def userNameToFileName(userName, existing=[], prefix="", suffix=""):
+	"""
+	existing should be a case-insensitive list
+	of all existing file names.
+	>>> userNameToFileName("a") == "a"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("A") == "A_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("AE") == "A_E_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("Ae") == "A_e"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("ae") == "ae"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("aE") == "aE_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("a.alt") == "a.alt"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("A.alt") == "A_.alt"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("A.Alt") == "A_.A_lt"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("A.aLt") == "A_.aL_t"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName(u"A.alT") == "A_.alT_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("T_H") == "T__H_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("T_h") == "T__h"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("t_h") == "t_h"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("F_F_I") == "F__F__I_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("f_f_i") == "f_f_i"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("Aacute_V.swash") == "A_acute_V_.swash"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName(".notdef") == "_notdef"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("con") == "_con"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("CON") == "C_O_N_"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("con.alt") == "_con.alt"
+	True
+	>>> userNameToFileName("alt.con") == "alt._con"
+	True
+	"""
+	# the incoming name must be a unicode string
+	if not isinstance(userName, unicode):
+		raise ValueError("The value for userName must be a unicode string.")
+	# establish the prefix and suffix lengths
+	prefixLength = len(prefix)
+	suffixLength = len(suffix)
+	# replace an initial period with an _
+	# if no prefix is to be added
+	if not prefix and userName[0] == ".":
+		userName = "_" + userName[1:]
+	# filter the user name
+	filteredUserName = []
+	for character in userName:
+		# replace illegal characters with _
+		if character in illegalCharacters:
+			character = "_"
+		# add _ to all non-lower characters
+		elif character != character.lower():
+			character += "_"
+		filteredUserName.append(character)
+	userName = "".join(filteredUserName)
+	# clip to 255
+	sliceLength = maxFileNameLength - prefixLength - suffixLength
+	userName = userName[:sliceLength]
+	# test for illegal files names
+	parts = []
+	for part in userName.split("."):
+		if part.lower() in reservedFileNames:
+			part = "_" + part
+		parts.append(part)
+	userName = ".".join(parts)
+	# test for clash
+	fullName = prefix + userName + suffix
+	if fullName.lower() in existing:
+		fullName = handleClash1(userName, existing, prefix, suffix)
+	# finished
+	return fullName
+
+def handleClash1(userName, existing=[], prefix="", suffix=""):
+	"""
+	existing should be a case-insensitive list
+	of all existing file names.
+	>>> prefix = ("0" * 5) + "."
+	>>> suffix = "." + ("0" * 10)
+	>>> existing = ["a" * 5]
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> handleClash1(userName="A" * 5, existing=e,
+	...		prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.AAAAA000000000000001.0000000000')
+	True
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> e.append(prefix + "aaaaa" + "1".zfill(15) + suffix)
+	>>> handleClash1(userName="A" * 5, existing=e,
+	...		prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.AAAAA000000000000002.0000000000')
+	True
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> e.append(prefix + "AAAAA" + "2".zfill(15) + suffix)
+	>>> handleClash1(userName="A" * 5, existing=e,
+	...		prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.AAAAA000000000000001.0000000000')
+	True
+	"""
+	# if the prefix length + user name length + suffix length + 15 is at
+	# or past the maximum length, silce 15 characters off of the user name
+	prefixLength = len(prefix)
+	suffixLength = len(suffix)
+	if prefixLength + len(userName) + suffixLength + 15 > maxFileNameLength:
+		l = (prefixLength + len(userName) + suffixLength + 15)
+		sliceLength = maxFileNameLength - l
+		userName = userName[:sliceLength]
+	finalName = None
+	# try to add numbers to create a unique name
+	counter = 1
+	while finalName is None:
+		name = userName + str(counter).zfill(15)
+		fullName = prefix + name + suffix
+		if fullName.lower() not in existing:
+			finalName = fullName
+			break
+		else:
+			counter += 1
+		if counter >= 999999999999999:
+			break
+	# if there is a clash, go to the next fallback
+	if finalName is None:
+		finalName = handleClash2(existing, prefix, suffix)
+	# finished
+	return finalName
+
+def handleClash2(existing=[], prefix="", suffix=""):
+	"""
+	existing should be a case-insensitive list
+	of all existing file names.
+	>>> prefix = ("0" * 5) + "."
+	>>> suffix = "." + ("0" * 10)
+	>>> existing = [prefix + str(i) + suffix for i in range(100)]
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> handleClash2(existing=e, prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.100.0000000000')
+	True
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> e.remove(prefix + "1" + suffix)
+	>>> handleClash2(existing=e, prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.1.0000000000')
+	True
+	>>> e = list(existing)
+	>>> e.remove(prefix + "2" + suffix)
+	>>> handleClash2(existing=e, prefix=prefix, suffix=suffix) == (
+	... 	'00000.2.0000000000')
+	True
+	"""
+	# calculate the longest possible string
+	maxLength = maxFileNameLength - len(prefix) - len(suffix)
+	maxValue = int("9" * maxLength)
+	# try to find a number
+	finalName = None
+	counter = 1
+	while finalName is None:
+		fullName = prefix + str(counter) + suffix
+		if fullName.lower() not in existing:
+			finalName = fullName
+			break
+		else:
+			counter += 1
+		if counter >= maxValue:
+			break
+	# raise an error if nothing has been found
+	if finalName is None:
+		raise NameTranslationError("No unique name could be found.")
+	# finished
+	return finalName
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Tests/misc/filenames_test.py b/Tests/misc/filenames_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2609459bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/misc/filenames_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+import unittest
+from fontTools.misc.filenames import userNameToFileName
+
+class FilenamesTest(unittest.TestCase):
+
+	def test_names(self):
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("a"),"a")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("A"), "A_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("AE"), "A_E_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("Ae"), "A_e")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("ae"), "ae")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("aE"), "aE_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("a.alt"), "a.alt")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("A.alt"), "A_.alt")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("A.Alt"), "A_.A_lt")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("A.aLt"), "A_.aL_t")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName(u"A.alT"), "A_.alT_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("T_H"), "T__H_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("T_h"), "T__h")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("t_h"), "t_h")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("F_F_I"), "F__F__I_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("f_f_i"), "f_f_i")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("Aacute_V.swash"), "A_acute_V_.swash")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName(".notdef"), "_notdef")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("con"), "_con")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("CON"), "C_O_N_")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("con.alt"), "_con.alt")
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName("alt.con"), "alt._con")
+
+	def test_prefix_suffix(self):
+		PREFIX="TEST_PREFIX"
+		SUFFIX="TEST_SUFFIX"
+		NAME="NAME"
+		NAME_FILE="N_A_M_E_"
+		self.assertEqual(userNameToFileName(NAME, prefix=PREFIX, suffix=SUFFIX), PREFIX + NAME_FILE + SUFFIX)
+
+	def test_collide(self):
+		PREFIX="TEST_PREFIX"
+		SUFFIX="TEST_SUFFIX"
+		NAME="NAME"
+		NAME_FILE="N_A_M_E_"
+		COLLISION_AVOIDANCE1="000000000000001"
+		COLLISION_AVOIDANCE2="000000000000002"
+		exist = set()
+		generated = userNameToFileName(NAME, exist, prefix=PREFIX, suffix=SUFFIX)
+		exist.add(generated.lower())
+		self.assertEqual(generated, PREFIX + NAME_FILE + SUFFIX)
+		generated = userNameToFileName(NAME, exist, prefix=PREFIX, suffix=SUFFIX)
+		exist.add(generated.lower())
+		self.assertEqual(generated, PREFIX + NAME_FILE + COLLISION_AVOIDANCE1 + SUFFIX)
+		generated = userNameToFileName(NAME, exist, prefix=PREFIX, suffix=SUFFIX)
+		self.assertEqual(generated, PREFIX + NAME_FILE + COLLISION_AVOIDANCE2+ SUFFIX)
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+	import sys
+	sys.exit(unittest.main())
\ No newline at end of file