diff --git a/include/charset.h b/include/charset.h
index fde6bddbc2f..c118cbeb9ab 100644
--- a/include/charset.h
+++ b/include/charset.h
@@ -195,6 +195,18 @@ int u16_strncmp(const u16 *s1, const u16 *s2, size_t n);
  */
 size_t u16_strlen(const void *in);
 
+/**
+ * u16_strsize() - count size of u16 string in bytes including the null
+ *		   character
+ *
+ * Counts the number of bytes occupied by a u16 string
+ *
+ * @in:			null terminated u16 string
+ * Return:		bytes in a u16 string
+ *
+ */
+size_t u16_strsize(const void *in);
+
 /**
  * u16_strlen - count non-zero words
  *
diff --git a/lib/charset.c b/lib/charset.c
index 1c6a7f693de..a28034ee1f1 100644
--- a/lib/charset.c
+++ b/lib/charset.c
@@ -379,6 +379,11 @@ size_t u16_strnlen(const u16 *in, size_t count)
 	return i;
 }
 
+size_t u16_strsize(const void *in)
+{
+	return (u16_strlen(in) + 1) * sizeof(u16);
+}
+
 u16 *u16_strcpy(u16 *dest, const u16 *src)
 {
 	u16 *tmp = dest;