diff --git a/builtin-blame.c b/builtin-blame.c
index aae14ef8bb..9b9f5442a2 100644
--- a/builtin-blame.c
+++ b/builtin-blame.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include "string-list.h"
 #include "mailmap.h"
 #include "parse-options.h"
+#include "utf8.h"
 
 static char blame_usage[] = "git blame [options] [rev-opts] [rev] [--] file";
 
@@ -1618,13 +1619,14 @@ static void emit_other(struct scoreboard *sb, struct blame_entry *ent, int opt)
 				printf(" %*d", max_orig_digits,
 				       ent->s_lno + 1 + cnt);
 
-			if (!(opt & OUTPUT_NO_AUTHOR))
-				printf(" (%-*.*s %10s",
-				       longest_author, longest_author,
-				       ci.author,
+			if (!(opt & OUTPUT_NO_AUTHOR)) {
+				int pad = longest_author - utf8_strwidth(ci.author);
+				printf(" (%s%*s %10s",
+				       ci.author, pad, "",
 				       format_time(ci.author_time,
 						   ci.author_tz,
 						   show_raw_time));
+			}
 			printf(" %*d) ",
 			       max_digits, ent->lno + 1 + cnt);
 		}
@@ -1755,7 +1757,7 @@ static void find_alignment(struct scoreboard *sb, int *option)
 		if (!(suspect->commit->object.flags & METAINFO_SHOWN)) {
 			suspect->commit->object.flags |= METAINFO_SHOWN;
 			get_commit_info(suspect->commit, &ci, 1);
-			num = strlen(ci.author);
+			num = utf8_strwidth(ci.author);
 			if (longest_author < num)
 				longest_author = num;
 		}
diff --git a/utf8.c b/utf8.c
index dc3735364f..ddfdc5e2b8 100644
--- a/utf8.c
+++ b/utf8.c
@@ -246,6 +246,25 @@ int utf8_width(const char **start, size_t *remainder_p)
 	return git_wcwidth(ch);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Returns the total number of columns required by a null-terminated
+ * string, assuming that the string is utf8.  Returns strlen() instead
+ * if the string does not look like a valid utf8 string.
+ */
+int utf8_strwidth(const char *string)
+{
+	int width = 0;
+	const char *orig = string;
+
+	while (1) {
+		if (!string)
+			return strlen(orig);
+		if (!*string)
+			return width;
+		width += utf8_width(&string, NULL);
+	}
+}
+
 int is_utf8(const char *text)
 {
 	while (*text) {
diff --git a/utf8.h b/utf8.h
index 98cce1b038..2f1b14ff49 100644
--- a/utf8.h
+++ b/utf8.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ typedef unsigned int ucs_char_t;  /* assuming 32bit int */
 
 ucs_char_t pick_one_utf8_char(const char **start, size_t *remainder_p);
 int utf8_width(const char **start, size_t *remainder_p);
+int utf8_strwidth(const char *string);
 int is_utf8(const char *text);
 int is_encoding_utf8(const char *name);