diff --git a/Doc/library/os.rst b/Doc/library/os.rst
--- a/Doc/library/os.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/os.rst
@@ -1494,8 +1494,11 @@
 
 .. function:: chown(path, uid, gid)
 
-   Change the owner and group id of *path* to the numeric *uid* and *gid*. To leave
-   one of the ids unchanged, set it to -1.
+   Change the owner and group id of *path* to the numeric *uid* and *gid*. To
+   leave one of the ids unchanged, set it to -1.
+
+   :mod:`shutil` has an enhanced version, :func:`shutil.chown`, that accepts
+   also the owner and group name.
 
    Availability: Unix.
 
diff --git a/Doc/library/shutil.rst b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
--- a/Doc/library/shutil.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
@@ -165,6 +165,18 @@
    Otherwise, copy src (with :func:`copy2`) to the dst and then remove src.
 
 
+.. function:: chown(filename, user=None, group=None)
+
+   Change owner *user* and *group* of the given *filename*.
+
+   *user* can either be a system user name or a uid; the same applies to
+   *group*. To leave one of the two unchanged, set it to *None* or omit it (but
+   in this case, the other has to be a named argument).
+
+   It's an enhancement of :func:`os.chown` in that it allows to specify the
+   names of the *user* and/or the *group*, and not only their uid/gid.
+
+
 .. exception:: Error
 
    This exception collects exceptions that raised during a multi-file operation. For
diff --git a/Lib/shutil.py b/Lib/shutil.py
--- a/Lib/shutil.py
+++ b/Lib/shutil.py
@@ -754,3 +754,40 @@
         func = _UNPACK_FORMATS[format][1]
         kwargs = dict(_UNPACK_FORMATS[format][2])
         func(filename, extract_dir, **kwargs)
+
+def chown(filename, user=None, group=None):
+    """Change owner user and group of the given `filename`.
+
+    `user` and `group` can either be the uid/gid or the user/group names, and in
+    that case, they are converted to their respective uid/gid.
+    """
+
+    if user is None and group is None:
+        raise ValueError("user and/or group must be set")
+
+    _user = None
+    _group = None
+
+
+    # if is None, let's pass -1 to os.chown(), that means "don't change it"
+    if user is None:
+        _user = -1
+    else:
+        # user can either be an int (the uid) or a string (the system username),
+        # in the latter case, we have to convert it to the uid
+        try:
+            _user = int(user)
+        except ValueError:
+            _user = _get_uid(user)
+
+    # same goes for the group
+    if group is None:
+        _group = -1
+    else:
+        try:
+            _group = int(group)
+        except ValueError:
+            _group = _get_gid(group)
+
+    # at the end, call chown, that's actually going to change the user/group
+    os.chown(filename, _user, _group)
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_shutil.py b/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_shutil.py
@@ -729,6 +729,28 @@
         unregister_unpack_format('Boo2')
         self.assertEqual(get_unpack_formats(), formats)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(UID_GID_SUPPORT, "Requires grp and pwd support")
+    def test_chown(self):
+
+        filename = tempfile.mktemp()
+        self._write_data(filename, 'testing chown function')
+
+        # no other argument than the filename
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError) as cm:
+            shutil.chown(filename)
+
+        # three succesfull call, using uid/gid
+        shutil.chown(filename, os.getuid(), os.getgid())
+        shutil.chown(filename, user=os.getuid())
+        shutil.chown(filename, group=os.getgid())
+
+        # let's use user & group names
+        _u = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0]
+        _g = grp.getgrgid(os.getgid())[0]
+        shutil.chown(filename, _u, _g)
+
+        # cleanup
+        os.remove(filename)
 
 class TestMove(unittest.TestCase):