diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index abc7141..032535c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Added
 
+- Spec-exact XML character classification (`PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter`, the
+  libxml2 `chvalid.h` parity): the XML 1.0 (Fifth Edition) `Char`,
+  `NameStartChar`, and `NameChar` productions as public predicates over Unicode
+  scalars, plus `isValidName(_:)`. The scanner's name recognition now uses these
+  exact ranges (replacing a loose `isLetter` check) from a single source of truth,
+  and handles both precomposed and combining-mark names.
 - Full encoding support. Byte input now decodes UTF-32 (both byte orders, BOM or
   sniffed) and the single-byte encodings ISO-8859-1 and Windows-1252 selected by
   the XML declaration's `encoding` name, in addition to UTF-8 and UTF-16. The
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b3e622d..2e91349 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ flowchart TB
   Writer["#32 xmlTextWriter"]:::done
   Reader["#33 xmlTextReader with validation"]:::epic
   Save["#34 Serialization option parity"]:::epic
-  Chars["#35 Character and name validity"]:::epic
+  Chars["#35 Character and name validity"]:::done
   Core --> Push
   Core --> Sax
   Core --> Html
diff --git a/Sources/Parsing/Reader.swift b/Sources/Parsing/Reader.swift
index f7fb4bd..d359107 100644
--- a/Sources/Parsing/Reader.swift
+++ b/Sources/Parsing/Reader.swift
@@ -101,19 +101,23 @@ extension StringProtocol {
 }
 
 extension Character {
+    private typealias XML = PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter
+
     /// XML S production: space, tab, carriage return, line feed.
     var isXMLWhitespace: Bool {
-        self == " " || self == "\t" || self == "\r" || self == "\n"
+        unicodeScalars.count == 1 && unicodeScalars.first.map(XML.isWhitespace) == true
     }
 
-    /// A character allowed to start an XML name (a practical subset of the spec
-    /// NameStartChar production: letters, underscore, and colon).
+    /// Whether this character may start an XML name. A grapheme qualifies when its
+    /// first scalar is a NameStartChar and any trailing scalars (combining marks)
+    /// are NameChar.
     var isXMLNameStart: Bool {
-        isLetter || self == "_" || self == ":"
+        guard let first = unicodeScalars.first, XML.isNameStart(first) else { return false }
+        return unicodeScalars.dropFirst().allSatisfy(XML.isNameChar)
     }
 
-    /// A character allowed within an XML name after the first.
+    /// Whether this character may continue an XML name (every scalar a NameChar).
     var isXMLNameContinuation: Bool {
-        isXMLNameStart || isNumber || self == "-" || self == "."
+        !unicodeScalars.isEmpty && unicodeScalars.allSatisfy(XML.isNameChar)
     }
 }
diff --git a/Sources/Parsing/XMLCharacter.swift b/Sources/Parsing/XMLCharacter.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da30e30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Sources/Parsing/XMLCharacter.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+public extension PureXML.Parsing {
+    /// Character classification per the XML 1.0 (Fifth Edition) grammar, the
+    /// single source of truth for what bytes are legal where. Predicates operate
+    /// on Unicode scalars, since the grammar productions are defined over code
+    /// points, not graphemes.
+    enum XMLCharacter {
+        /// `S`: white space (space, tab, carriage return, line feed).
+        public static func isWhitespace(_ scalar: Unicode.Scalar) -> Bool {
+            switch scalar.value {
+            case 0x20, 0x09, 0x0D, 0x0A: true
+            default: false
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// `Char`: any legal XML character.
+        public static func isChar(_ scalar: Unicode.Scalar) -> Bool {
+            switch scalar.value {
+            case 0x09, 0x0A, 0x0D,
+                 0x20 ... 0xD7FF,
+                 0xE000 ... 0xFFFD,
+                 0x10000 ... 0x10FFFF:
+                true
+            default:
+                false
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// `NameStartChar`: the first character of a name.
+        public static func isNameStart(_ scalar: Unicode.Scalar) -> Bool {
+            switch scalar.value {
+            case 0x3A, // ":"
+                 0x41 ... 0x5A, // A-Z
+                 0x5F, // "_"
+                 0x61 ... 0x7A, // a-z
+                 0xC0 ... 0xD6,
+                 0xD8 ... 0xF6,
+                 0xF8 ... 0x2FF,
+                 0x370 ... 0x37D,
+                 0x37F ... 0x1FFF,
+                 0x200C ... 0x200D,
+                 0x2070 ... 0x218F,
+                 0x2C00 ... 0x2FEF,
+                 0x3001 ... 0xD7FF,
+                 0xF900 ... 0xFDCF,
+                 0xFDF0 ... 0xFFFD,
+                 0x10000 ... 0xEFFFF:
+                true
+            default:
+                false
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// `NameChar`: a name character after the first.
+        public static func isNameChar(_ scalar: Unicode.Scalar) -> Bool {
+            if isNameStart(scalar) { return true }
+            switch scalar.value {
+            case 0x2D, // "-"
+                 0x2E, // "."
+                 0x30 ... 0x39, // 0-9
+                 0xB7,
+                 0x300 ... 0x36F,
+                 0x203F ... 0x2040:
+                return true
+            default:
+                return false
+            }
+        }
+
+        /// `Name`: a NameStartChar followed by zero or more NameChar.
+        public static func isValidName(_ name: String) -> Bool {
+            var scalars = name.unicodeScalars.makeIterator()
+            guard let first = scalars.next(), isNameStart(first) else { return false }
+            while let scalar = scalars.next() {
+                if !isNameChar(scalar) { return false }
+            }
+            return true
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/Tests/XMLCharacterTests.swift b/Tests/XMLCharacterTests.swift
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca8b3a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Tests/XMLCharacterTests.swift
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+@testable import PureXML
+import Testing
+
+@Suite("XML characters")
+struct XMLCharacterTests {
+    private func scalar(_ value: UInt32) -> Unicode.Scalar {
+        Unicode.Scalar(value) ?? " "
+    }
+
+    @Test("isChar follows the Char production")
+    func test_isChar() {
+        #expect(PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isChar(scalar(0x09))) // tab
+        #expect(PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isChar(scalar(0x41))) // A
+        #expect(!PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isChar(scalar(0x01))) // control
+        #expect(!PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isChar(scalar(0xFFFE))) // non-character
+    }
+
+    @Test("Name start excludes name-only characters; name char includes them")
+    func test_nameClasses() {
+        let kind = PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.self
+        #expect(kind.isNameStart(scalar(0x03B1))) // Greek alpha
+        #expect(!kind.isNameStart(scalar(0x30))) // digit
+        #expect(!kind.isNameStart(scalar(0x0301))) // combining acute
+        #expect(!kind.isNameStart(scalar(0x00AA))) // ordinal: a letter, but outside NameStartChar
+        #expect(kind.isNameChar(scalar(0x30))) // digit
+        #expect(kind.isNameChar(scalar(0x0301))) // combining acute
+        #expect(kind.isNameChar(scalar(0xB7))) // middle dot
+        #expect(!kind.isNameChar(scalar(0x20))) // space
+    }
+
+    @Test("isValidName accepts well-formed names and rejects the rest")
+    func test_isValidName() {
+        for name in ["foo", "foo-bar", "ns:local", "_x1", "\u{00E9}l", "\u{03B1}\u{0301}"] {
+            #expect(PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isValidName(name), "\(name)")
+        }
+        for name in ["", "1abc", "-x", ".x", "a b", "a\u{0001}b"] {
+            #expect(!PureXML.Parsing.XMLCharacter.isValidName(name), "\(name)")
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test("The parser accepts a non-ASCII element name")
+    func test_unicodeElementName() throws {
+        let node = try PureXML.parse("<\u{03B1}>x</\u{03B1}>")
+        guard case let .document(children) = node, case let .element(element) = children.first else {
+            Issue.record("expected a document with a root element")
+            return
+        }
+        #expect(element.name.localName == "\u{03B1}")
+        #expect(element.text == "x")
+    }
+}