diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 449724af7..e5c24d0e1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 Changes between 2.3.4 and 2.3.5dev
 -----------------------------------
 
+- issue250 unicode/str mixes in parametrization names and values now works
+
 - issue257, assertion-triggered compilation of source ending in a
   comment line doesn't blow up in python2.5 (fixed through py>=1.4.13.dev6)
 
diff --git a/_pytest/python.py b/_pytest/python.py
index f145ca5b8..a18b80bc1 100644
--- a/_pytest/python.py
+++ b/_pytest/python.py
@@ -732,7 +732,7 @@ def idmaker(argnames, argvalues):
         this_id = []
         for nameindex, val in enumerate(valset):
             if not isinstance(val, (float, int, str)):
-                this_id.append(argnames[nameindex]+str(valindex))
+                this_id.append(str(argnames[nameindex])+str(valindex))
             else:
                 this_id.append(str(val))
         idlist.append("-".join(this_id))
diff --git a/testing/python/metafunc.py b/testing/python/metafunc.py
index 1dc7c107a..b9d46994a 100644
--- a/testing/python/metafunc.py
+++ b/testing/python/metafunc.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+
 import pytest, py, sys
 from _pytest import python as funcargs
 from _pytest.python import FixtureLookupError
@@ -106,6 +107,7 @@ class TestMetafunc:
         assert metafunc._calls[2].id == "x1-a"
         assert metafunc._calls[3].id == "x1-b"
 
+    @pytest.mark.issue250
     def test_idmaker_autoname(self):
         from _pytest.python import idmaker
         result = idmaker(("a", "b"), [("string", 1.0),
@@ -115,6 +117,9 @@ class TestMetafunc:
         result = idmaker(("a", "b"), [(object(), 1.0),
                                       (object(), object())])
         assert result == ["a0-1.0", "a1-b1"]
+        # unicode mixing, issue250
+        result = idmaker((u"a", "b"), [({}, '\xc3\xb4')])
+        assert result == ['a0-\xc3\xb4']
 
 
     def test_addcall_and_parametrize(self):
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 6a41a27af..509d2d394 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -50,6 +50,13 @@ changedir=.
 commands=py.test --doctest-modules _pytest
 deps=
 
+[testenv:py32]
+deps=
+    :pypi:nose
+
+[testenv:py33]
+deps=
+    :pypi:nose
 
 [testenv:doc]
 basepython=python