diff --git a/cmd/api-response.go b/cmd/api-response.go
index ff36645ab..7c50aab0a 100644
--- a/cmd/api-response.go
+++ b/cmd/api-response.go
@@ -305,21 +305,6 @@ func getObjectLocation(r *http.Request, domains []string, bucket, object string)
 	return u.String()
 }
 
-// s3EncodeName encodes string in response when encodingType
-// is specified in AWS S3 requests.
-func s3EncodeName(name string, encodingType string) (result string) {
-	// Quick path to exit
-	if encodingType == "" {
-		return name
-	}
-	encodingType = strings.ToLower(encodingType)
-	switch encodingType {
-	case "url":
-		return url.QueryEscape(name)
-	}
-	return name
-}
-
 // generates ListBucketsResponse from array of BucketInfo which can be
 // serialized to match XML and JSON API spec output.
 func generateListBucketsResponse(buckets []BucketInfo) ListBucketsResponse {
diff --git a/cmd/api-utils.go b/cmd/api-utils.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0e370b1be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/api-utils.go
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+/*
+ * Minio Cloud Storage, (C) 2019 Minio, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package cmd
+
+import (
+	"strings"
+)
+
+func shouldEscape(c byte) bool {
+	if 'A' <= c && c <= 'Z' || 'a' <= c && c <= 'z' || '0' <= c && c <= '9' {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	switch c {
+	case '-', '_', '.', '/', '*':
+		return false
+	}
+	return true
+}
+
+// s3URLEncode is based on Golang's url.QueryEscape() code,
+// while considering some S3 exceptions:
+//	- Avoid encoding '/' and '*'
+//	- Force encoding of '~'
+func s3URLEncode(s string) string {
+	spaceCount, hexCount := 0, 0
+	for i := 0; i < len(s); i++ {
+		c := s[i]
+		if shouldEscape(c) {
+			if c == ' ' {
+				spaceCount++
+			} else {
+				hexCount++
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	if spaceCount == 0 && hexCount == 0 {
+		return s
+	}
+
+	var buf [64]byte
+	var t []byte
+
+	required := len(s) + 2*hexCount
+	if required <= len(buf) {
+		t = buf[:required]
+	} else {
+		t = make([]byte, required)
+	}
+
+	if hexCount == 0 {
+		copy(t, s)
+		for i := 0; i < len(s); i++ {
+			if s[i] == ' ' {
+				t[i] = '+'
+			}
+		}
+		return string(t)
+	}
+
+	j := 0
+	for i := 0; i < len(s); i++ {
+		switch c := s[i]; {
+		case c == ' ':
+			t[j] = '+'
+			j++
+		case shouldEscape(c):
+			t[j] = '%'
+			t[j+1] = "0123456789ABCDEF"[c>>4]
+			t[j+2] = "0123456789ABCDEF"[c&15]
+			j += 3
+		default:
+			t[j] = s[i]
+			j++
+		}
+	}
+	return string(t)
+}
+
+// s3EncodeName encodes string in response when encodingType is specified in AWS S3 requests.
+func s3EncodeName(name string, encodingType string) (result string) {
+	// Quick path to exit
+	if encodingType == "" {
+		return name
+	}
+	encodingType = strings.ToLower(encodingType)
+	switch encodingType {
+	case "url":
+		return s3URLEncode(name)
+	}
+	return name
+}
diff --git a/cmd/api-utils_test.go b/cmd/api-utils_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0ef817964
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/api-utils_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+/*
+ * Minio Cloud Storage, (C) 2019 Minio, Inc.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package cmd
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestS3EncodeName(t *testing.T) {
+	testCases := []struct {
+		inputText, encodingType, expectedOutput string
+	}{
+		{"a b", "", "a b"},
+		{"a b", "url", "a+b"},
+		{"p- ", "url", "p-+"},
+		{"p-%", "url", "p-%25"},
+		{"p/", "url", "p/"},
+		{"p/", "url", "p/"},
+		{"~user", "url", "%7Euser"},
+		{"*user", "url", "*user"},
+		{"user+password", "url", "user%2Bpassword"},
+		{"_user", "url", "_user"},
+		{"firstname.lastname", "url", "firstname.lastname"},
+	}
+	for i, testCase := range testCases {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("Test%d", i+1), func(t *testing.T) {
+			outputText := s3EncodeName(testCase.inputText, testCase.encodingType)
+			if testCase.expectedOutput != outputText {
+				t.Errorf("Expected `%s`, got `%s`", testCase.expectedOutput, outputText)
+			}
+
+		})
+	}
+}