diff --git a/include/ircd/locale.h b/include/ircd/locale.h
index 9554e0a5f..1612815ae 100644
--- a/include/ircd/locale.h
+++ b/include/ircd/locale.h
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ namespace locale {
 // On newer platforms (gcc-5 etc) these conversions are standard C++.
 // On older platforms the definition file may use boost::locale.
 size_t convert(const char16_t *const &, char *const &buf, const size_t &max);
+size_t convert(const char *const &, char16_t *const &buf, const size_t &max);  // uint8_t = max*2
 std::string convert(const char16_t *const &);
 std::string convert(const std::u16string &);
 std::u16string convert(const char *const &);
diff --git a/ircd/locale.cc b/ircd/locale.cc
index 5f6e226dc..23a1be25a 100644
--- a/ircd/locale.cc
+++ b/ircd/locale.cc
@@ -112,3 +112,39 @@ ircd::locale::convert(const char16_t *const &str,
 	return rb_strlcpy(buf, s.c_str(), max);
 }
 #endif
+
+#ifdef HAVE_CODECVT
+size_t
+ircd::locale::convert(const char *const &str,
+                      char16_t *const &buf,
+                      const size_t &max)
+{
+	static std::wstring_convert<std::codecvt_utf8<char16_t>, char16_t> converter;
+
+	if(unlikely(!max))
+		return 0;
+
+	//TODO: optimize
+	const auto s(converter.from_bytes(str));
+	const auto cpsz(std::min(s.size(), size_t(max - 1)));
+	memcpy(buf, s.data(), cpsz * 2);
+	buf[cpsz] = char16_t(0);
+	return cpsz;
+}
+#else
+size_t
+ircd::locale::convert(const char *const &str,
+                      char16_t *const &buf,
+                      const size_t &max)
+{
+	if(unlikely(!max))
+		return 0;
+
+	//TODO: optimize
+	const auto s(boost::locale::conv::utf_to_utf<char16_t>(str));
+	const auto cpsz(std::min(s.size(), size_t(max - 1)));
+	memcpy(buf, s.data(), cpsz * 2);
+	buf[cpsz] = char16_t(0);
+	return cpsz;
+}
+#endif