diff --git a/app.ts b/app.ts
index 27228cd..0b67279 100644
--- a/app.ts
+++ b/app.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import caniuseRouter from "./routes/caniuse/index.js";
 import githubRouter from "./routes/github/index.js";
 import respecRouter from "./routes/respec/index.js";
 import w3cRouter from "./routes/w3c/index.js";
+import apiRouter from "./routes/api/index.js";
 import wellKnownRouter from "./routes/well-known/index.js";
 import docsRouter from "./routes/docs/index.js";
 
@@ -45,6 +46,7 @@ app.use("/caniuse", caniuseRouter);
 app.use("/github/:org/:repo", githubRouter);
 app.use("/respec", respecRouter);
 app.use("/w3c", w3cRouter);
+app.use("/api", apiRouter);
 app.use("/.well-known", wellKnownRouter);
 app.use("/docs", docsRouter);
 app.get("/", (_req, res) => res.redirect("/docs/"));
diff --git a/routes/api/index.ts b/routes/api/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23790e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import express from "express";
+import unicode from "./unicode/index.js";
+
+const router = express.Router({ mergeParams: true });
+
+router.use("/unicode", unicode);
+
+export default router;
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/index.ts b/routes/api/unicode/index.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d2d143
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/index.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import path from "node:path";
+
+import express from "express";
+import cors from "cors";
+
+import { env, ms } from "../../../utils/misc.js";
+
+import namesRoute from "./names.js";
+import updateRoute from "./update.js";
+
+const DATA_DIR = env("DATA_DIR");
+
+const router = express.Router({ mergeParams: true });
+
+router
+  .options("/names", cors({ methods: ["POST", "GET"], maxAge: ms("1day") }))
+  .post("/names", express.json({ limit: "2mb" }), cors(), namesRoute);
+router.post("/update", updateRoute);
+router.use("/data", express.static(path.join(DATA_DIR, "unicode")));
+
+export default router;
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/lib/scraper.ts b/routes/api/unicode/lib/scraper.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d0bc47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/lib/scraper.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+import path from "node:path";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import { createReadStream, createWriteStream } from "node:fs";
+import { mkdir, rm } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { Readable } from "node:stream";
+import { ReadableStream } from "node:stream/web";
+import { finished } from "node:stream/promises";
+import { createInterface } from "node:readline/promises";
+
+import { env } from "../../../../utils/misc.js";
+
+const DATA_DIR = env("DATA_DIR");
+
+export const INPUT_DATA_SOURCE = `https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeData.txt`;
+const OUT_DIR_BASE = path.join(DATA_DIR, "unicode");
+const OUT_FILE_BY_CODEPOINT = path.resolve(
+  OUT_DIR_BASE,
+  "./codepoint-to-name.json",
+);
+
+const defaultOptions = { forceUpdate: false };
+type Options = typeof defaultOptions;
+
+export default async function main(options: Partial<Options> = {}) {
+  options = { ...defaultOptions, ...options } as Options;
+  const hasUpdated = await updateInputSource();
+  if (!hasUpdated && !options.forceUpdate) {
+    console.log("Nothing to update");
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  return true;
+}
+
+// download file and convert its data to JSON
+async function updateInputSource() {
+  await mkdir(OUT_DIR_BASE, { recursive: true });
+
+  const namesJs = path.join(tmpdir(), "unicode-all-names.js");
+  await rm(namesJs, { force: true });
+  await rm(OUT_FILE_BY_CODEPOINT, { force: true });
+
+  console.log(`Downloading`, INPUT_DATA_SOURCE, "to", namesJs);
+  await downloadFile(INPUT_DATA_SOURCE, namesJs);
+
+  console.log("Converting to JSON and writing to", OUT_FILE_BY_CODEPOINT);
+  const rl = createInterface({
+    input: createReadStream(namesJs),
+    crlfDelay: Infinity,
+  });
+  const dest = createWriteStream(OUT_FILE_BY_CODEPOINT, { flags: "a" });
+  dest.write("[\n");
+  for await (const line of rl) {
+    const parsed = parseLine(line);
+    if (!parsed) continue;
+    dest.write(JSON.stringify(parsed) + ",\n");
+  }
+  dest.write(`["null", {"name": ""}]`);
+  dest.write("\n]\n");
+  await new Promise(resolve => dest.end(resolve));
+
+  console.log("Wrote to", OUT_FILE_BY_CODEPOINT);
+  await rm(namesJs, { force: true });
+
+  return true;
+}
+
+// Parse a line based on https://www.unicode.org/Public/5.1.0/ucd/UCD.html#UnicodeData.txt
+// e.g. 0001;<control>;Cc;0;BN;;;;;N;START OF HEADING;;;;
+// -> 0001 -> {name: "[control]", generalCategory: "Cc", ...}
+function parseLine(line: string) {
+  if (line.startsWith("#")) {
+    return null; // comments
+  }
+
+  const parts = line.split(";");
+  const codepoint = parts[0];
+  const name = parts[1].replace(/[<>]/g, s => (s === "<" ? "[" : "]"));
+  return [codepoint, { name }] as const;
+}
+
+async function downloadFile(url: string, destination: string) {
+  const res = await fetch(url);
+  await mkdir(path.dirname(destination), { recursive: true });
+  const outStream = createWriteStream(destination, { flags: "wx" });
+  await finished(
+    Readable.fromWeb(res.body as ReadableStream<any>).pipe(outStream),
+  );
+}
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/lib/store-init.ts b/routes/api/unicode/lib/store-init.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..11ea147
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/lib/store-init.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import { Store } from "./store.js";
+
+export const store = new Store();
+
+export type { Store };
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/lib/store.ts b/routes/api/unicode/lib/store.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ba4a6c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/lib/store.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import path from "path";
+import { readFileSync } from "fs";
+
+import { env } from "../../../../utils/misc.js";
+import { INPUT_DATA_SOURCE } from "./scraper.js";
+
+export class Store {
+  version = -1;
+  private codepointToName: Map<string, { name: string }> = new Map();
+
+  constructor() {
+    this.fill();
+  }
+
+  /** Fill the store with its contents from the filesystem. */
+  fill() {
+    this.codepointToName = new Map(readJson("codepoint-to-name.json"));
+    this.version = Date.now();
+  }
+
+  getNameByHexCodePoint(hex: string) {
+    return this.codepointToName.get(hex) ?? null;
+  }
+
+  get dataSource() {
+    return INPUT_DATA_SOURCE;
+  }
+}
+
+function readJson(filename: string) {
+  const DATA_DIR = env("DATA_DIR");
+  const dataFile = path.resolve(DATA_DIR, `./unicode/${filename}`);
+  const text = readFileSync(dataFile, "utf8");
+  return JSON.parse(text);
+}
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/names.ts b/routes/api/unicode/names.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a213dae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/names.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+import type { Request, Response } from "express";
+
+import { store, type Store } from "./lib/store-init.js";
+
+interface Query {
+  /** Codepoint as hex */
+  hex: string;
+}
+interface Result {
+  name: string;
+}
+
+type Options = Record<never, never>;
+
+interface RequestBody {
+  queries: Query[];
+  options?: Options;
+}
+type IRequest = Request<never, any, RequestBody>;
+
+interface ResponseData {
+  data: Array<{ query: Query; result: Result | null }>;
+  metadata: { lastParsedAt: string; dataSource: string };
+}
+
+export default function route(req: IRequest, res: Response) {
+  const { options = {}, queries = [] } = req.body;
+  const data: ResponseData["data"] = queries.map(query => ({
+    query,
+    result: search(query, store, options),
+  }));
+
+  Object.assign(res.locals, {
+    errors: getErrorCount(data),
+    queries: queries.length,
+  });
+
+  const result: ResponseData = {
+    data,
+    metadata: {
+      lastParsedAt: store.version.toString(),
+      dataSource: store.dataSource,
+    },
+  };
+  res.json(result);
+}
+
+function search(query: Query, store: Store, _options: Options): Result | null {
+  if (query.hex) {
+    query.hex = query.hex.toUpperCase().padStart(4, "0");
+    const data = store.getNameByHexCodePoint(query.hex);
+    return data;
+  }
+  return null;
+}
+
+function getErrorCount(results: ResponseData["data"]) {
+  return results.filter(({ result }) => !result).length;
+}
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/update.ts b/routes/api/unicode/update.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cee0ec7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/update.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import path from "path";
+import { legacyDirname } from "../../../utils/misc.js";
+import { BackgroundTaskQueue } from "../../../utils/background-task-queue.js";
+import { store } from "./lib/store-init.js";
+import type { Request, Response } from "express";
+
+const workerFile = path.join(legacyDirname(import.meta), "update.worker.js");
+const taskQueue = new BackgroundTaskQueue<typeof import("./update.worker.js")>(
+  workerFile,
+  "unicode_update",
+);
+
+export default async function route(req: Request, res: Response) {
+  const job = taskQueue.add({});
+  try {
+    const { updated } = await job.run();
+    if (updated) {
+      store.fill();
+    }
+  } catch {
+    res.status(500);
+  } finally {
+    res.locals.job = job.id;
+    res.send(job.id);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/routes/api/unicode/update.worker.ts b/routes/api/unicode/update.worker.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d159772
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/api/unicode/update.worker.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import unicodeScraper from "./lib/scraper.js";
+
+interface Input {}
+
+export default async function unicodeUpdate(_input: Input) {
+  const updated = await unicodeScraper();
+  return { updated };
+}
diff --git a/scripts/update-data-sources.ts b/scripts/update-data-sources.ts
index e6687cb..c57754a 100644
--- a/scripts/update-data-sources.ts
+++ b/scripts/update-data-sources.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { mkdir } from "fs/promises";
 import { env } from "../utils/misc.js";
 import caniuse from "../routes/caniuse/lib/scraper.js";
 import xref from "../routes/xref/lib/scraper.js";
+import unicode from "../routes/api/unicode/lib/scraper.js";
 import w3cGroupsList from "./update-w3c-groups-list.js";
 
 // ensure the data directory exists
@@ -16,6 +17,10 @@ console.group("xref");
 await xref({ forceUpdate: true });
 console.groupEnd();
 
+console.group("unicode");
+await unicode({ forceUpdate: true });
+console.groupEnd();
+
 console.group("W3C Groups List");
 await w3cGroupsList();
 console.groupEnd();