diff --git a/src/common/stringTools.cpp b/src/common/stringTools.cpp
index 0457c2f6a..55520f7fc 100644
--- a/src/common/stringTools.cpp
+++ b/src/common/stringTools.cpp
@@ -76,6 +76,30 @@ std::string kiwix::removeAccents(const std::string &text) {
   return unaccentedText;
 }
 
+std::string kiwix::ucFirst (const std::string &word) {
+  if (word.empty())
+    return "";
+
+  std::string ucFirstWord;
+  UnicodeString firstLetter = UnicodeString(word.substr(0, 1).c_str());
+  UnicodeString ucFirstLetter = firstLetter.toUpper();
+  ucFirstLetter.toUTF8String(ucFirstWord);
+  ucFirstWord += word.substr(1);
+  return ucFirstWord;
+}
+
+std::string kiwix::lcFirst (const std::string &word) {
+  if (word.empty())
+    return "";
+
+  std::string ucFirstWord;
+  UnicodeString firstLetter = UnicodeString(word.substr(0, 1).c_str());
+  UnicodeString ucFirstLetter = firstLetter.toLower();
+  ucFirstLetter.toUTF8String(ucFirstWord);
+  ucFirstWord += word.substr(1);
+  return ucFirstWord;
+}
+
 void kiwix::printStringInHexadecimal(UnicodeString s) {
   std::cout << std::showbase << std::hex;
   for (int i=0; i<s.length(); i++) {
diff --git a/src/common/stringTools.h b/src/common/stringTools.h
index a8873d3bd..eaf81a38b 100644
--- a/src/common/stringTools.h
+++ b/src/common/stringTools.h
@@ -45,6 +45,9 @@ namespace kiwix {
 
   void printStringInHexadecimal(const char *s);
   void printStringInHexadecimal(UnicodeString s);
+
+  std::string ucFirst (const std::string &word);
+  std::string lcFirst (const std::string &word);
 }
 
 #endif