diff --git a/app/common/gristUrls.ts b/app/common/gristUrls.ts
index 929848d4..2ed120b5 100644
--- a/app/common/gristUrls.ts
+++ b/app/common/gristUrls.ts
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import {IAttachedCustomWidget} from "app/common/widgetTypes";
 import {UIRowId} from 'app/plugin/GristAPI';
 import clone = require('lodash/clone');
 import pickBy = require('lodash/pickBy');
+import slugify from 'slugify';
 
 export const SpecialDocPage = StringUnion('code', 'acl', 'data', 'GristDocTour', 'settings', 'webhook');
 type SpecialDocPage = typeof SpecialDocPage.type;
@@ -1051,13 +1052,11 @@ function shouldIncludeSlug(doc: {id: string, urlId: string|null}): boolean {
   return doc.id.startsWith(doc.urlId) || doc.urlId.startsWith(SHARE_KEY_PREFIX);
 }
 
-// Convert the name of a document into a slug.  Only alphanumerics are retained,
-// and spaces are replaced with hyphens.
-// TODO: investigate whether there's a better option with unicode than just
-// deleting it, seems unfair to languages using anything other than unaccented
-// Latin characters.
+// Convert the name of a document into a slug. The slugify library normalizes unicode characters,
+// replaces those with a reasonable ascii representation. Only alphanumerics are retained, and
+// spaces are replaced with hyphens.
 function nameToSlug(name: string): string {
-  return name.trim().replace(/ /g, '-').replace(/[^-a-zA-Z0-9]/g, '').replace(/---*/g, '-');
+  return slugify(name, {strict: true});
 }
 
 // Returns a slug for the given docId/urlId/name, or undefined if a slug should
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 487b547f..b873470d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -182,6 +182,7 @@
     "redlock": "3.1.2",
     "saml2-js": "2.0.5",
     "short-uuid": "3.1.1",
+    "slugify": "1.6.6",
     "tmp": "0.0.33",
     "ts-interface-checker": "1.0.2",
     "typeorm": "0.3.9",
diff --git a/test/common/gristUrls.ts b/test/common/gristUrls.ts
index 6ce7c5c5..d00cefea 100644
--- a/test/common/gristUrls.ts
+++ b/test/common/gristUrls.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import {decodeUrl, getHostType, IGristUrlState, parseFirstUrlPart} from 'app/common/gristUrls';
+import {decodeUrl, getHostType, getSlugIfNeeded, IGristUrlState, parseFirstUrlPart} from 'app/common/gristUrls';
 import {assert} from 'chai';
 import * as testUtils from 'test/server/testUtils';
 
@@ -129,4 +129,27 @@ describe('gristUrls', function() {
       assert.equal(getHostType('doc-worker-123.internal:8079', defaultOptions), 'custom');
     });
   });
+
+  describe('getSlugIfNeeded', function() {
+    it('should only return a slug when a valid urlId is used', function() {
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id: '1234567890abcdef', urlId: '1234567890ab', name: 'Foo'}), 'Foo');
+      // urlId too short
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id: '1234567890abcdef', urlId: '12345678', name: 'Foo'}), undefined);
+      // urlId doesn't match docId
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id: '1234567890abcdef', urlId: '1234567890ac', name: 'Foo'}), undefined);
+      // no urlId
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id: '1234567890abcdef', urlId: '', name: 'Foo'}), undefined);
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id: '1234567890abcdef', urlId: null, name: 'Foo'}), undefined);
+    });
+
+    it('should leave only alphamerics after replacing reasonable unicode chars', function() {
+      const id = '1234567890abcdef', urlId = '1234567890ab';
+      // This is mainly a test of the `slugify` library we now use. What matters isn't the
+      // specific result, but that the result is reasonable.
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id, urlId, name: 'Foo'}), 'Foo');
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id, urlId, name: "Hélène's résumé"}), 'Helenes-resume');
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id, urlId, name: "Привіт, Їжак!"}), 'Privit-Yizhak');
+      assert.strictEqual(getSlugIfNeeded({id, urlId, name: "S&P500 is ~$4,894.16"}), 'SandP500-is-dollar489416');
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 13e4dd09..06375a60 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -7150,6 +7150,11 @@ slash@^3.0.0:
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/slash/-/slash-3.0.0.tgz#6539be870c165adbd5240220dbe361f1bc4d4634"
   integrity sha512-g9Q1haeby36OSStwb4ntCGGGaKsaVSjQ68fBxoQcutl5fS1vuY18H3wSt3jFyFtrkx+Kz0V1G85A4MyAdDMi2Q==
 
+slugify@1.6.6:
+  version "1.6.6"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/slugify/-/slugify-1.6.6.tgz#2d4ac0eacb47add6af9e04d3be79319cbcc7924b"
+  integrity sha512-h+z7HKHYXj6wJU+AnS/+IH8Uh9fdcX1Lrhg1/VMdf9PwoBQXFcXiAdsy2tSK0P6gKwJLXp02r90ahUCqHk9rrw==
+
 smart-buffer@^4.2.0:
   version "4.2.0"
   resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/smart-buffer/-/smart-buffer-4.2.0.tgz#6e1d71fa4f18c05f7d0ff216dd16a481d0e8d9ae"