diff --git a/src/shared/format-table.c b/src/shared/format-table.c
index e538d96414..ee641d1144 100644
--- a/src/shared/format-table.c
+++ b/src/shared/format-table.c
@@ -2895,18 +2895,39 @@ static int table_data_to_json(TableData *d, sd_json_variant **ret) {
         }
 }
 
-static char* string_to_json_field_name(const char *f) {
+char* table_mangle_to_json_field_name(const char *str) {
         /* Tries to make a string more suitable as JSON field name. There are no strict rules defined what a
-         * field name can be hence this is a bit vague and black magic. Right now we only convert spaces to
-         * underscores and leave everything as is. */
+         * field name can be hence this is a bit vague and black magic. Here's what we do:
+         *  - Convert spaces to underscores
+         *  - Convert dashes to underscores (some JSON parsers don't like dealing with dashes)
+         *  - Convert most other symbols to underscores (for similar reasons)
+         *  - Make the first letter of each word lowercase (unless it looks like the whole word is uppercase)
+         */
 
-        char *c = strdup(f);
+        bool new_word = true;
+        char *c;
+
+        assert(str);
+
+        c = strdup(str);
         if (!c)
                 return NULL;
 
-        for (char *x = c; *x; x++)
-                if (isspace(*x))
+        for (char *x = c; *x; x++) {
+                if (!strchr(ALPHANUMERICAL, *x)) {
                         *x = '_';
+                        new_word = true;
+                        continue;
+                }
+
+                if (new_word) {
+                        if (ascii_tolower(*(x + 1)) == *(x + 1)) /* Heuristic: if next char is upper-case
+                                                                  * then we assume the whole word is all-caps
+                                                                  * and avoid lowercasing it. */
+                                *x = ascii_tolower(*x);
+                        new_word = false;
+                }
+        }
 
         return c;
 }
@@ -2927,7 +2948,7 @@ static int table_make_json_field_name(Table *t, TableData *d, char **ret) {
                         return -ENOMEM;
         }
 
-        mangled = string_to_json_field_name(n);
+        mangled = table_mangle_to_json_field_name(n);
         if (!mangled)
                 return -ENOMEM;
 
diff --git a/src/shared/format-table.h b/src/shared/format-table.h
index 15c0547b94..bb2eb70759 100644
--- a/src/shared/format-table.h
+++ b/src/shared/format-table.h
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ int table_print_json(Table *t, FILE *f, sd_json_format_flags_t json_flags);
 
 int table_print_with_pager(Table *t, sd_json_format_flags_t json_format_flags, PagerFlags pager_flags, bool show_header);
 
+char* table_mangle_to_json_field_name(const char *str);
 int table_set_json_field_name(Table *t, size_t idx, const char *name);
 
 #define table_log_add_error(r) \
diff --git a/src/test/test-format-table.c b/src/test/test-format-table.c
index fa34c29b02..41621dbb5b 100644
--- a/src/test/test-format-table.c
+++ b/src/test/test-format-table.c
@@ -404,6 +404,38 @@ TEST(json) {
         assert_se(sd_json_variant_equal(v, w));
 }
 
+TEST(json_mangling) {
+        static const struct {
+                const char *arg;
+                const char *exp;
+        } cases[] = {
+                /* Not Mangled */
+                { "foo", "foo" },
+                { "foo_bar", "foo_bar" },
+                { "fooBar", "fooBar" },
+                { "fooBar123", "fooBar123" },
+                { "foo_bar123", "foo_bar123" },
+                { ALPHANUMERICAL, ALPHANUMERICAL },
+                { "_123", "_123" },
+
+                /* Mangled */
+                { "Foo Bar", "foo_bar" },
+                { "Foo-Bar", "foo_bar" },
+                { "Foo@Bar", "foo_bar" },
+                { "Foo (Bar)", "foo__bar_"},
+                { "MixedCase ALLCAPS", "mixedCase_ALLCAPS" },
+                { "_X", "_x" },
+                { "_Foo", "_foo" },
+        };
+
+        FOREACH_ELEMENT(i, cases) {
+                _cleanup_free_ char *ret = NULL;
+                assert_se(ret = table_mangle_to_json_field_name(i->arg));
+                printf("\"%s\" -> \"%s\"\n", i->arg, ret);
+                assert_se(streq(ret, i->exp));
+        }
+}
+
 TEST(table) {
         _cleanup_(table_unrefp) Table *t = NULL;
         _cleanup_free_ char *formatted = NULL;