diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/group.js b/app/assets/javascripts/group.js
index 903c838e266e2a9bba735de73f87746c7cbff93b..460174caf4dab7aed2446c2ac3d5fa7ffed5df6c 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/group.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/group.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import $ from 'jquery';
-import { slugifyWithHyphens } from './lib/utils/text_utility';
+import { slugify } from './lib/utils/text_utility';
 
 export default class Group {
   constructor() {
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ export default class Group {
   }
 
   update() {
-    const slug = slugifyWithHyphens(this.groupName.val());
+    const slug = slugify(this.groupName.val());
     this.groupPath.val(slug);
   }
 
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/lib/utils/text_utility.js b/app/assets/javascripts/lib/utils/text_utility.js
index cc1d85fd97d4ceec49dec13b02e705017413e73a..c19685cf2563817f4fdab2fa1cfc43092b278c54 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/lib/utils/text_utility.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/lib/utils/text_utility.js
@@ -44,11 +44,15 @@ export const pluralize = (str, count) => str + (count > 1 || count === 0 ? 's' :
 export const dasherize = str => str.replace(/[_\s]+/g, '-');
 
 /**
- * Replaces whitespaces with hyphens and converts to lower case
+ * Replaces whitespaces with hyphens, convert to lower case and remove non-allowed special characters
  * @param {String} str
  * @returns {String}
  */
-export const slugifyWithHyphens = str => str.toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-');
+export const slugify = str => {
+  let slug = str.trim().toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, '-').replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9_\.\-\s]/g, '-').replace(/-{2,}/g, '-');
+
+  return (slug == '-') ? '' : slug;
+};
 
 /**
  * Replaces whitespaces with underscore and converts to lower case
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/projects/project_new.js b/app/assets/javascripts/projects/project_new.js
index ea82ff4e340e869f02b2dbd277017c1bcb8aa5b9..9066844f687545f5738cbfa09741213ea7eed838 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/projects/project_new.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/projects/project_new.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import $ from 'jquery';
 import { addSelectOnFocusBehaviour } from '../lib/utils/common_utils';
-import { slugifyWithHyphens } from '../lib/utils/text_utility';
+import { slugify } from '../lib/utils/text_utility';
 import { s__ } from '~/locale';
 
 let hasUserDefinedProjectPath = false;
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ const deriveProjectPathFromUrl = $projectImportUrl => {
 };
 
 const onProjectNameChange = ($projectNameInput, $projectPathInput) => {
-  const slug = slugifyWithHyphens($projectNameInput.val());
+  const slug = slugify($projectNameInput.val());
   $projectPathInput.val(slug);
 };
 
diff --git a/spec/frontend/lib/utils/text_utility_spec.js b/spec/frontend/lib/utils/text_utility_spec.js
index 9e920d5909386e5972479044ad906b7ac79a63d4..04f1c434581e2719f60eb98658caefc582db6150 100644
--- a/spec/frontend/lib/utils/text_utility_spec.js
+++ b/spec/frontend/lib/utils/text_utility_spec.js
@@ -49,15 +49,30 @@ describe('text_utility', () => {
     });
   });
 
-  describe('capitalizeFirstCharacter', () => {
-    it('returns string with first letter capitalized', () => {
-      expect(textUtils.capitalizeFirstCharacter('gitlab')).toEqual('Gitlab');
+  describe('slugify', () => {
+    it('should remove accents and convert to lower case', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify('João')).toEqual('jo-o');
+    });
+    it('should replaces whitespaces with hyphens and convert to lower case', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify('My Input String')).toEqual('my-input-string');
+    });
+    it('should remove trailing whitespace and replace whitespaces within string with a hyphen', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify(' a new project ')).toEqual('a-new-project');
+    });
+    it('should only remove non-allowed special characters', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify('test!_pro-ject~')).toEqual('test-_pro-ject-');
+    });
+    it('should squash multiple hypens', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify('test!!!!_pro-ject~')).toEqual('test-_pro-ject-');
+    });
+    it('should return empty string if only non-allowed characters', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.slugify('здрасти')).toEqual('');
     });
   });
 
-  describe('slugifyWithHyphens', () => {
-    it('should replaces whitespaces with hyphens and convert to lower case', () => {
-      expect(textUtils.slugifyWithHyphens('My Input String')).toEqual('my-input-string');
+  describe('capitalizeFirstCharacter', () => {
+    it('returns string with first letter capitalized', () => {
+      expect(textUtils.capitalizeFirstCharacter('gitlab')).toEqual('Gitlab');
     });
   });