diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector.ts
index 6d7d9ada9b0b..b048482d2eb7 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector.ts
@@ -5,18 +5,47 @@
  * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
  * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
  */
-
 import { schema } from '@angular-devkit/core';
 
+// As per https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/custom-elements.html#valid-custom-element-name
+// * Without mandatory `-` as the application prefix will generally cover its inclusion
+// * And an allowance for upper alpha characters
+
+// NOTE: This should eventually be broken out into two formats: full and partial (allows for prefix)
+
+const unicodeRanges = [
+  [0xC0, 0xD6],
+  [0xD8, 0xF6],
+  [0xF8, 0x37D],
+  [0x37F, 0x1FFF],
+  [0x200C, 0x200D],
+  [0x203F, 0x2040],
+  [0x2070, 0x218F],
+  [0x2C00, 0x2FEF],
+  [0x3001, 0xD7FF],
+  [0xF900, 0xFDCF],
+  [0xFDF0, 0xFFFD],
+  [0x10000, 0xEFFFF],
+];
+
+function isValidElementName(name: string) {
+  let regex = '^[a-zA-Z][';
+
+  regex += '-.0-9_a-zA-Z\\u{B7}';
+
+  for (const range of unicodeRanges) {
+    regex += `\\u{${range[0].toString(16)}}-\\u{${range[1].toString(16)}}`;
+  }
+
+  regex += ']*$';
 
-// Must start with a letter, and must contain only alphanumeric characters or dashes.
-// When adding a dash the segment after the dash must also start with a letter.
-export const htmlSelectorRe = /^[a-zA-Z][.0-9a-zA-Z]*(:?-[a-zA-Z][.0-9a-zA-Z]*)*$/;
+  return new RegExp(regex, 'u').test(name);
+}
 
 export const htmlSelectorFormat: schema.SchemaFormat = {
   name: 'html-selector',
   formatter: {
     async: false,
-    validate: (selector: string) => htmlSelectorRe.test(selector),
+    validate: name => typeof name === 'string' && isValidElementName(name),
   },
 };
diff --git a/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector_spec.ts b/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector_spec.ts
index c59ad62d6641..411d1df67df9 100644
--- a/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/angular_devkit/schematics/src/formats/html-selector_spec.ts
@@ -5,12 +5,10 @@
  * Use of this source code is governed by an MIT-style license that can be
  * found in the LICENSE file at https://angular.io/license
  */
-
 import { map } from 'rxjs/operators';
 import { formatValidator } from './format-validator';
 import { htmlSelectorFormat } from './html-selector';
 
-
 describe('Schematics HTML selector format', () => {
   it('accepts correct selectors', done => {
     const data = { selector: 'my-selector' };
@@ -45,14 +43,25 @@ describe('Schematics HTML selector format', () => {
       .toPromise().then(done, done.fail);
   });
 
-  it('rejects selectors with non-letter after dash', done => {
+  it('accepts selectors with non-letter after dash', done => {
     const data = { selector: 'my-1selector' };
     const dataSchema = {
       properties: { selector: { type: 'string', format: 'html-selector' } },
     };
 
     formatValidator(data, dataSchema, [htmlSelectorFormat])
-      .pipe(map(result => expect(result.success).toBe(false)))
+      .pipe(map(result => expect(result.success).toBe(true)))
+      .toPromise().then(done, done.fail);
+  });
+
+  it('accepts selectors with unicode', done => {
+    const data = { selector: 'app-root😀' };
+    const dataSchema = {
+      properties: { selector: { type: 'string', format: 'html-selector' } },
+    };
+
+    formatValidator(data, dataSchema, [htmlSelectorFormat])
+      .pipe(map(result => expect(result.success).toBe(true)))
       .toPromise().then(done, done.fail);
   });
 });