diff --git a/include/pybind11/cast.h b/include/pybind11/cast.h
index 309660066..b8638b9c2 100644
--- a/include/pybind11/cast.h
+++ b/include/pybind11/cast.h
@@ -641,7 +641,6 @@ struct type_caster<std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator>, enable_if_t<is_s
     static_assert(!std::is_same<CharT, wchar_t>::value || sizeof(CharT) == 2 || sizeof(CharT) == 4,
             "Unsupported wchar_t size != 2/4");
     static constexpr size_t UTF_N = 8 * sizeof(CharT);
-    static constexpr const char *encoding = UTF_N == 8 ? "utf8" : UTF_N == 16 ? "utf16" : "utf32";
 
     using StringType = std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator>;
 
@@ -666,7 +665,7 @@ struct type_caster<std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator>, enable_if_t<is_s
         }
 
         object utfNbytes = reinterpret_steal<object>(PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(
-            load_src.ptr(), encoding, nullptr));
+            load_src.ptr(), UTF_N == 8 ? "utf-8" : UTF_N == 16 ? "utf-16" : "utf-32", nullptr));
         if (!utfNbytes) { PyErr_Clear(); return false; }
 
         const CharT *buffer = reinterpret_cast<const CharT *>(PYBIND11_BYTES_AS_STRING(utfNbytes.ptr()));
@@ -679,12 +678,28 @@ struct type_caster<std::basic_string<CharT, Traits, Allocator>, enable_if_t<is_s
     static handle cast(const StringType &src, return_value_policy /* policy */, handle /* parent */) {
         const char *buffer = reinterpret_cast<const char *>(src.c_str());
         ssize_t nbytes = ssize_t(src.size() * sizeof(CharT));
-        handle s = PyUnicode_Decode(buffer, nbytes, encoding, nullptr);
+        handle s = decode_utfN(buffer, nbytes);
         if (!s) throw error_already_set();
         return s;
     }
 
     PYBIND11_TYPE_CASTER(StringType, _(PYBIND11_STRING_NAME));
+
+private:
+    static handle decode_utfN(const char *buffer, ssize_t nbytes) {
+#if !defined(PYPY_VERSION)
+        return
+            UTF_N == 8  ? PyUnicode_DecodeUTF8(buffer, nbytes, nullptr) :
+            UTF_N == 16 ? PyUnicode_DecodeUTF16(buffer, nbytes, nullptr, nullptr) :
+                          PyUnicode_DecodeUTF32(buffer, nbytes, nullptr, nullptr);
+#else
+        // PyPy seems to have multiple problems related to PyUnicode_UTF*: the UTF8 version
+        // sometimes segfaults for unknown reasons, while the UTF16 and 32 versions require a
+        // non-const char * arguments, which is also a nuissance, so bypass the whole thing by just
+        // passing the encoding as a string value, which works properly:
+        return PyUnicode_Decode(buffer, nbytes, UTF_N == 8 ? "utf-8" : UTF_N == 16 ? "utf-16" : "utf-32", nullptr);
+#endif
+    }
 };
 
 // Type caster for C-style strings.  We basically use a std::string type caster, but also add the