diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
index fe0455caeb92a..331abb4a073ad 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ See docs/process.md for more on how version tagging works.
 
 Current Trunk
 -------------
+- Calls to `newlocale` (and `new std::locale` in C++) with arbirary names will
+  now succeed.  This is the behaviour of musl libc which emscripten had
+  previously inadvertently disabled.
 - System libraries are now compiled with debug info (`-g`).  This doesn't
   affect release builds (builds without `-g`) but allows DWARF debugging of
   types defined in system libraries such as C++ STL types (#13078).
diff --git a/system/lib/libc/musl/src/locale/newlocale.c b/system/lib/libc/musl/src/locale/newlocale.c
index bbc312084efbd..f50bbe9132df3 100644
--- a/system/lib/libc/musl/src/locale/newlocale.c
+++ b/system/lib/libc/musl/src/locale/newlocale.c
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ locale_t __newlocale(int mask, const char *name, locale_t loc)
 	if (j==1 && tmp.cat[LC_CTYPE]==&__c_dot_utf8)
 		return UTF8_LOCALE;
 
+	if ((loc = malloc(sizeof *loc))) *loc = tmp;
+
 	return loc;
 }
 
diff --git a/tests/test_locale.c b/tests/core/test_localeconv.c
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/test_locale.c
rename to tests/core/test_localeconv.c
diff --git a/tests/test_locale.out b/tests/core/test_localeconv.out
similarity index 100%
rename from tests/test_locale.out
rename to tests/core/test_localeconv.out
diff --git a/tests/core/test_newlocale.c b/tests/core/test_newlocale.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..26264aa3dd653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/test_newlocale.c
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#include <locale.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+void test(const char* name) {
+  locale_t loc = newlocale(LC_ALL_MASK, name, 0);
+  if (loc)
+    printf("newlocale '%s' succeeded\n", name);
+  else
+    printf("newlocale '%s' failed\n", name);
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
+  test("C");
+  test("waka");
+  return 0;
+}
diff --git a/tests/core/test_newlocale.out b/tests/core/test_newlocale.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..cde3005a114d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/test_newlocale.out
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+newlocale 'C' succeeded
+newlocale 'waka' succeeded
diff --git a/tests/core/test_setlocale.c b/tests/core/test_setlocale.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..1918d603e2a52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/test_setlocale.c
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <locale.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
+  char* rtn;
+  rtn = setlocale(LC_ALL, "C");
+  printf("done setlocale 'C': '%s'\n", rtn);
+  rtn = setlocale(LC_ALL, "waka");
+  printf("done setlocale 'waka': '%s'\n", rtn);
+  return 0;
+}
diff --git a/tests/core/test_setlocale.out b/tests/core/test_setlocale.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e01346ffaa09b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/test_setlocale.out
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+done setlocale 'C': 'C;C;C;C;C;C'
+done setlocale 'waka': 'waka;waka;waka;waka;waka;waka'
diff --git a/tests/test_core.py b/tests/test_core.py
index 0a828db43ecb9..6ceda4ed79997 100644
--- a/tests/test_core.py
+++ b/tests/test_core.py
@@ -7295,8 +7295,14 @@ def test_noexitruntime(self):
   def test_minmax(self):
     self.do_runf(path_from_root('tests', 'test_minmax.c'), 'NAN != NAN\nSuccess!')
 
-  def test_locale(self):
-    self.do_run_in_out_file_test('tests', 'test_locale.c')
+  def test_localeconv(self):
+    self.do_run_in_out_file_test('tests', 'core', 'test_localeconv.c')
+
+  def test_newlocale(self):
+    self.do_run_in_out_file_test('tests', 'core', 'test_newlocale.c')
+
+  def test_setlocale(self):
+    self.do_run_in_out_file_test('tests', 'core', 'test_setlocale.c')
 
   def test_vswprintf_utf8(self):
     self.do_run_in_out_file_test('tests', 'vswprintf_utf8.c')
diff --git a/tests/test_other.py b/tests/test_other.py
index 790f8d9894fb6..1edf45d408355 100644
--- a/tests/test_other.py
+++ b/tests/test_other.py
@@ -4679,8 +4679,16 @@ def test_locale_wrong(self):
 }
 ''')
     self.run_process([EMCC, 'src.cpp', '-s', 'EXIT_RUNTIME', '-s', 'DISABLE_EXCEPTION_CATCHING=0'])
-    self.assertContained('Constructed locale "C"\nThis locale is the global locale.\nThis locale is the C locale.', self.run_js('a.out.js', args=['C']))
-    self.assertContained('''Can't construct locale "waka": collate_byname<char>::collate_byname failed to construct for waka''', self.run_js('a.out.js', args=['waka'], assert_returncode=1))
+    self.assertContained('''\
+Constructed locale "C"
+This locale is the global locale.
+This locale is the C locale.
+''', self.run_js('a.out.js', args=['C']))
+    self.assertContained('''\
+Constructed locale "waka"
+This locale is not the global locale.
+This locale is not the C locale.
+''', self.run_js('a.out.js', args=['waka']))
 
   def test_cleanup_os(self):
     # issue 2644