diff --git a/Doc/library/os.rst b/Doc/library/os.rst
--- a/Doc/library/os.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/os.rst
@@ -1521,6 +1521,9 @@
    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.
 
+   See :func:`shutil.chown` for a higher-level function that accepts names in
+   addition to numeric ids.
+
    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 +165,21 @@
    Otherwise, copy src (with :func:`copy2`) to the dst and then remove src.
 
 
+.. function:: chown(path, user=None, group=None)
+
+   Change owner *user* and/or *group* of the given *path* (either a file or a
+   directory).
+
+   *user* can 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.
+
+   See also :func:`os.chown`, the underlying function.
+
+   Availability: Unix.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.3
+
+
 .. 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 +754,37 @@
         func = _UNPACK_FORMATS[format][1]
         kwargs = dict(_UNPACK_FORMATS[format][2])
         func(filename, extract_dir, **kwargs)
+
+def chown(path, user=None, group=None):
+    """Change owner user and group of the given path (file or dir).
+
+    user and group can 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 = user
+    _group = group
+
+    # -1 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)
+        if not isinstance(user, int):
+             _user = _get_uid(user)
+             # it means we weren't able to get the uid from the name
+             if _user is None:
+                 raise ValueError("no such user, %s" % user)
+
+    if group is None:
+        _group = -1
+    else:
+        if not isinstance(group, int):
+            _group = _get_gid(group)
+            if _group is None:
+                 raise ValueError("no such group, %s" % group)
+
+    os.chown(path, _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 +729,37 @@
         unregister_unpack_format('Boo2')
         self.assertEqual(get_unpack_formats(), formats)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(UID_GID_SUPPORT, "Requires grp and pwd support")
+    def test_chown(self):
+
+        # cleaned-up automatically by Test.Shutil.tearDown method
+        dirname = self.mkdtemp()
+        filename = tempfile.mktemp(dir=dirname)
+        self._write_data(filename, 'testing chown function')
+
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            shutil.chown(filename)
+
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            shutil.chown(filename, 'non-exising username')
+
+        with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            shutil.chown(filename, group='non-exising groupname')
+
+        shutil.chown(filename, os.getuid(), os.getgid())
+        shutil.chown(filename, os.getuid())
+        shutil.chown(filename, user=os.getuid())
+        shutil.chown(filename, group=os.getgid())
+
+        shutil.chown(dirname, os.getuid(), os.getgid())
+        shutil.chown(dirname, os.getuid())
+        shutil.chown(dirname, user=os.getuid())
+        shutil.chown(dirname, group=os.getgid())
+
+        _user = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid())[0]
+        _group = grp.getgrgid(os.getgid())[0]
+        shutil.chown(filename, _user, _group)
+        shutil.chown(dirname, _user, _group)
 
 class TestMove(unittest.TestCase):