diff --git a/Lib/collections.py b/Lib/collections.py
index 2408818..ace2b2a 100644
--- a/Lib/collections.py
+++ b/Lib/collections.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
     # generating informative error messages and preventing template injection attacks.
     if isinstance(field_names, basestring):
         field_names = field_names.replace(',', ' ').split() # names separated by whitespace and/or commas
-    field_names = tuple(field_names)
+    field_names = tuple(map(str, field_names))
     for name in (typename,) + field_names:
         if not all(c.isalnum() or c=='_' for c in name):
             raise ValueError('Type names and field names can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores: %r' % name)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_collections.py b/Lib/test/test_collections.py
index d689add..7dffd73 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_collections.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_collections.py
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@
         namedtuple('Point0', 'x1 y2')   # Verify that numbers are allowed in names
         namedtuple('_', 'a b c')        # Test leading underscores in a typename
 
+        nt = namedtuple('nt', u'the quick brown fox')                       # check unicode input
+        self.assert_("u'" not in repr(nt._fields))
+        nt = namedtuple('nt', (u'the', u'quick'))                           # check unicode input
+        self.assert_("u'" not in repr(nt._fields))
+
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, Point._make, [11])                     # catch too few args
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, Point._make, [11, 22, 33])             # catch too many args