diff --git a/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParser.java b/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParser.java
index 2768c67..f4b10ce 100644
--- a/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParser.java
+++ b/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParser.java
@@ -195,7 +195,7 @@
 
     private static String asDisplayableString(char c) {
         if (Character.isWhitespace(c)) {
-            return String.format("U+%04x", (int)c);
+            return String.format("'\\u%04x'", (int)c);
         } else {
             return "'" + c + "'";
         }
diff --git a/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParserTest.java b/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParserTest.java
index b7d24c2..6fe3b9f 100644
--- a/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParserTest.java
+++ b/jackrabbit-spi-commons/src/test/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/spi/commons/conversion/NameParserTest.java
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@
             NameParser.checkFormat("horizontal\ttab");
             fail("should fail with IllegalNameException");
         } catch (IllegalNameException ex) {
-            assertTrue("message should contain 'U+0009'", ex.getMessage().indexOf("U+0009") >= 0);
+            assertTrue("message should contain '\\u0009'", ex.getMessage().indexOf("'\\u0009'") >= 0);
         }
     }