diff --git a/_pytest/compat.py b/_pytest/compat.py
index 8c200af5fe5..269a23504be 100644
--- a/_pytest/compat.py
+++ b/_pytest/compat.py
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ def isclass(object):
     STRING_TYPES = bytes, str
     UNICODE_TYPES = str,
 
-    def _escape_strings(val):
+    def _ascii_escaped(val):
         """If val is pure ascii, returns it as a str().  Otherwise, escapes
         bytes objects into a sequence of escaped bytes:
 
@@ -162,7 +162,7 @@ def _escape_strings(val):
 
     from itertools import imap  # NOQA
 
-    def _escape_strings(val):
+    def _ascii_escaped(val):
         """In py2 bytes and str are the same type, so return if it's a bytes
         object, return it unchanged if it is a full ascii string,
         otherwise escape it into its binary form.
diff --git a/_pytest/python.py b/_pytest/python.py
index 06f74ce4b8a..91403233ed1 100644
--- a/_pytest/python.py
+++ b/_pytest/python.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 from _pytest import fixtures
 from _pytest import main
 from _pytest.compat import (
-    isclass, isfunction, is_generator, _escape_strings,
+    isclass, isfunction, is_generator, _ascii_escaped,
     REGEX_TYPE, STRING_TYPES, NoneType, NOTSET,
     get_real_func, getfslineno, safe_getattr,
     safe_str, getlocation, enum,
@@ -929,7 +929,7 @@ def _idval(val, argname, idx, idfn, config=None):
             msg += '\nUpdate your code as this will raise an error in pytest-4.0.'
             warnings.warn(msg, DeprecationWarning)
         if s:
-            return _escape_strings(s)
+            return _ascii_escaped(s)
 
     if config:
         hook_id = config.hook.pytest_make_parametrize_id(
@@ -938,11 +938,11 @@ def _idval(val, argname, idx, idfn, config=None):
             return hook_id
 
     if isinstance(val, STRING_TYPES):
-        return _escape_strings(val)
+        return _ascii_escaped(val)
     elif isinstance(val, (float, int, bool, NoneType)):
         return str(val)
     elif isinstance(val, REGEX_TYPE):
-        return _escape_strings(val.pattern)
+        return _ascii_escaped(val.pattern)
     elif enum is not None and isinstance(val, enum.Enum):
         return str(val)
     elif isclass(val) and hasattr(val, '__name__'):
@@ -958,7 +958,7 @@ def _idvalset(idx, parameterset, argnames, idfn, ids, config=None):
                    for val, argname in zip(parameterset.values, argnames)]
         return "-".join(this_id)
     else:
-        return _escape_strings(ids[idx])
+        return _ascii_escaped(ids[idx])
 
 
 def idmaker(argnames, parametersets, idfn=None, ids=None, config=None):
diff --git a/changelog/2533.trivial b/changelog/2533.trivial
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cac4c3bdd2b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/2533.trivial
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Renamed the utility function `_pytest.compat._escape_strings` to `_ascii_escaped` to better communicate the function's purpose.