diff --git a/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/ui/ChatUIConstants.kt b/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/ui/ChatUIConstants.kt
index f00d650e..1a15a497 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/ui/ChatUIConstants.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/com/bitchat/android/ui/ChatUIConstants.kt
@@ -1,9 +1,19 @@
 package com.bitchat.android.ui
 
+import java.text.BreakIterator
+
 /**
  * UI constants/utilities for nickname rendering.
  */
 fun truncateNickname(name: String, maxLen: Int = com.bitchat.android.util.AppConstants.UI.MAX_NICKNAME_LENGTH): String {
-    return if (name.length <= maxLen) name else name.take(maxLen)
-}
+    if (name.length <= maxLen) return name
 
+    // The limit counts UTF-16 code units, so cutting at it can land inside a
+    // surrogate pair and leave a lone surrogate that renders as a tofu box, or
+    // split a ZWJ sequence into its parts. Step back to the last grapheme
+    // boundary at or before the limit so what is shown is always whole.
+    val boundaries = BreakIterator.getCharacterInstance()
+    boundaries.setText(name)
+    val end = boundaries.preceding(maxLen + 1)
+    return if (end == BreakIterator.DONE) "" else name.substring(0, end)
+}