diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 64532cb..1fbe099 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
         "scrapy-poet>=0.24.0",
         "scrapy-spider-metadata>=0.2.0",
         "scrapy-zyte-api[provider]>=0.24.0",
+        "text-unidecode>=1.3.0",
         "web-poet>=0.17.1",
         "xtractmime>=0.2.1",
         "zyte-common-items>=0.26.2",
diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
index df7b124..e57b600 100644
--- a/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import contextlib
+import os
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional, Type
 
 import pytest
@@ -20,3 +22,15 @@ def get_crawler(
     runner = CrawlerRunner(settings)
     crawler = runner.create_crawler(spider_cls)
     return crawler
+
+
+# https://stackoverflow.com/a/34333710
+@contextlib.contextmanager
+def set_env(**environ):
+    old_environ = dict(os.environ)
+    os.environ.update(environ)
+    try:
+        yield
+    finally:
+        os.environ.clear()
+        os.environ.update(old_environ)
diff --git a/tests/incremental/__init__.py b/tests/incremental/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/incremental/test_collection_fp_manager.py b/tests/incremental/test_collection_fp_manager.py
index c6cdcf2..8823f00 100644
--- a/tests/incremental/test_collection_fp_manager.py
+++ b/tests/incremental/test_collection_fp_manager.py
@@ -1,15 +1,22 @@
 from asyncio import ensure_future
+from logging import WARNING
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
 
 import pytest
+from scrapy import Spider
 from scrapy.statscollectors import StatsCollector
 from scrapy.utils.request import RequestFingerprinter
+from scrapy.utils.test import get_crawler as _get_crawler
 from twisted.internet.defer import Deferred, inlineCallbacks
 
-from tests import get_crawler
-from zyte_spider_templates._incremental.manager import CollectionsFingerprintsManager
+from zyte_spider_templates._incremental.manager import (
+    CollectionsFingerprintsManager,
+    _get_collection_name,
+)
 from zyte_spider_templates.spiders.article import ArticleSpider
 
+from .. import get_crawler, set_env
+
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def mock_crawler():
@@ -207,3 +214,67 @@ def test_spider_closed(mock_scrapinghub_client):
     fp_manager.save_batch = MagicMock(side_effect=fp_manager.save_batch)  # type: ignore
     fp_manager.spider_closed()
     fp_manager.save_batch.assert_called_once()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("env_vars", "settings", "spider_name", "collection_name", "warnings"),
+    (
+        # INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME > SHUB_VIRTUAL_SPIDER > Spider.name
+        # INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME is used as is, others are
+        # slugified, length-limited and they get an “_incremental” suffix.
+        (
+            {},
+            {},
+            "a A-1.α" + "a" * 2048,
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental")) + "_incremental",
+            ["without defining a specific collection name"],
+        ),
+        (
+            {"SHUB_VIRTUAL_SPIDER": "a A-1.α" + "a" * 2048},
+            {},
+            "foo",
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental")) + "_incremental",
+            ["without defining a specific collection name"],
+        ),
+        (
+            {"SHUB_VIRTUAL_SPIDER": "bar"},
+            {"INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME": "a A-1.α" + "a" * 2048},
+            "foo",
+            "a A-1.α" + "a" * 2048,
+            [],
+        ),
+        (
+            {},
+            {},
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental")),
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental")) + "_incremental",
+            [],
+        ),
+        (
+            {},
+            {},
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental") + 1),
+            "a_A_1_a" + "a" * (2048 - len("a_A_1_a_incremental")) + "_incremental",
+            ["without defining a specific collection name"],
+        ),
+    ),
+)
+def test_collection_name(
+    env_vars, settings, spider_name, collection_name, warnings, caplog
+):
+    class TestSpider(Spider):
+        name = spider_name
+
+    crawler = _get_crawler(settings_dict=settings, spidercls=TestSpider)
+    crawler.spider = TestSpider()
+
+    caplog.clear()
+    with caplog.at_level(WARNING):
+        with set_env(**env_vars):
+            assert _get_collection_name(crawler) == collection_name
+
+    if warnings:
+        for warning in warnings:
+            assert warning in caplog.text
+    else:
+        assert not caplog.records
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 2a65da7..523441f 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ deps =
     scrapy-poet==0.24.0
     scrapy-spider-metadata==0.2.0
     scrapy-zyte-api[provider]==0.24.0
+    text-unidecode==1.3.0
     web-poet==0.17.1
     xtractmime==0.2.1
     zyte-common-items==0.26.2
diff --git a/zyte_spider_templates/_incremental/manager.py b/zyte_spider_templates/_incremental/manager.py
index 6e4ff28..49ca505 100644
--- a/zyte_spider_templates/_incremental/manager.py
+++ b/zyte_spider_templates/_incremental/manager.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import asyncio
 import logging
+import re
 from collections import defaultdict
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
 from typing import Dict, List, Optional, Set, Tuple, Union
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@
 from scrapy import signals
 from scrapy.crawler import Crawler
 from scrapy.http.request import Request
+from text_unidecode import unidecode
 from zyte_common_items import Item
 
 from zyte_spider_templates.utils import (
@@ -22,11 +24,35 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 INCREMENTAL_SUFFIX = "_incremental"
+_MAX_LENGTH = 2048 - len(INCREMENTAL_SUFFIX)
 COLLECTION_API_URL = "https://storage.scrapinghub.com/collections"
 
 THREAD_POOL_EXECUTOR = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=10)
 
 
+def _get_collection_name(crawler: Crawler) -> str:
+    if name := crawler.settings.get("INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME"):
+        return name
+    original_spider_name = get_spider_name(crawler)
+    mangled_spider_name = unidecode(original_spider_name)
+    mangled_spider_name = re.sub(r"[^a-zA-Z0-9_]", "_", mangled_spider_name)
+    mangled_spider_name = mangled_spider_name.rstrip("_")
+    mangled_spider_name = mangled_spider_name[:_MAX_LENGTH]
+    name = mangled_spider_name + INCREMENTAL_SUFFIX
+    if mangled_spider_name != original_spider_name:
+        logger.warning(
+            f"You enabled incremental crawling without defining a specific "
+            f"collection name. As a result, the spider name "
+            f"({original_spider_name!r}) was mangled as "
+            f"{mangled_spider_name!r} to generate a name for the collection "
+            f"to use: {name!r}. Consider setting that or a different "
+            f"collection name explicitly, either through spider parameters "
+            f"(if supported) or through the INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME "
+            f"setting."
+        )
+    return name
+
+
 class CollectionsFingerprintsManager:
     def __init__(self, crawler: Crawler) -> None:
         self.writer = None
@@ -37,7 +63,7 @@ def __init__(self, crawler: Crawler) -> None:
         self.batch_size = crawler.settings.getint("INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_BATCH_SIZE", 50)
 
         project_id = get_project_id(crawler)
-        collection_name = self.get_collection_name(crawler)
+        collection_name = _get_collection_name(crawler)
 
         self.init_collection(project_id, collection_name)
         self.api_url = f"{COLLECTION_API_URL}/{project_id}/s/{collection_name}"
@@ -51,12 +77,6 @@ def __init__(self, crawler: Crawler) -> None:
 
         crawler.signals.connect(self.spider_closed, signal=signals.spider_closed)
 
-    def get_collection_name(self, crawler):
-        return (
-            crawler.settings.get("INCREMENTAL_CRAWL_COLLECTION_NAME")
-            or f"{get_spider_name(crawler)}{INCREMENTAL_SUFFIX}"
-        )
-
     def init_collection(self, project_id, collection_name) -> None:
         client = get_client()
         collection = client.get_project(project_id).collections.get_store(