diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew.cs b/src/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..247b5d37e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,188 @@
+using System.Buffers;
+using System.Collections.Frozen;
+using System.Globalization;
+using System.Text;
+
+namespace Umbraco.Cms.Core.Strings;
+
+/// <summary>
+/// SIMD-optimized UTF-8 to ASCII converter with extensible character mappings.
+/// </summary>
+public sealed class Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew : IUtf8ToAsciiConverter
+{
+    // SIMD-optimized ASCII detection (uses AVX-512 when available)
+    private static readonly SearchValues<char> AsciiPrintable =
+        SearchValues.Create(" !\"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@" +
+                           "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_`" +
+                           "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~");
+
+    private readonly FrozenDictionary<char, string> _mappings;
+
+    public Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew(ICharacterMappingLoader mappingLoader)
+    {
+        _mappings = mappingLoader.LoadMappings();
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public string Convert(string? text, char fallback = '?')
+    {
+        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text))
+        {
+            return string.Empty;
+        }
+
+        var input = text.AsSpan();
+
+        // Fast path: all ASCII - no conversion needed
+        if (input.IndexOfAnyExcept(AsciiPrintable) == -1)
+        {
+            return text;
+        }
+
+        // Allocate output buffer (worst case: each char becomes 4, e.g., Щ→Shch)
+        var maxLen = text.Length * 4;
+        char[] arrayBuffer = ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Rent(maxLen);
+        try
+        {
+            var written = Convert(input, arrayBuffer.AsSpan(), fallback);
+            return new string(arrayBuffer, 0, written);
+        }
+        finally
+        {
+            ArrayPool<char>.Shared.Return(arrayBuffer);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// <inheritdoc />
+    public int Convert(ReadOnlySpan<char> input, Span<char> output, char fallback = '?')
+    {
+        if (input.IsEmpty)
+        {
+            return 0;
+        }
+
+        var opos = 0;
+        var ipos = 0;
+
+        while (ipos < input.Length)
+        {
+            // Find next non-ASCII character using SIMD
+            var remaining = input[ipos..];
+            var asciiLen = remaining.IndexOfAnyExcept(AsciiPrintable);
+
+            if (asciiLen == -1)
+            {
+                // Rest is all ASCII - bulk copy
+                remaining.CopyTo(output[opos..]);
+                return opos + remaining.Length;
+            }
+
+            if (asciiLen > 0)
+            {
+                // Copy ASCII prefix
+                remaining[..asciiLen].CopyTo(output[opos..]);
+                opos += asciiLen;
+                ipos += asciiLen;
+            }
+
+            // Process non-ASCII character
+            var c = input[ipos];
+
+            // Handle surrogate pairs (emoji, etc.)
+            if (char.IsSurrogate(c))
+            {
+                output[opos++] = fallback;
+                ipos++;
+                if (ipos < input.Length && char.IsLowSurrogate(input[ipos]))
+                {
+                    ipos++; // Skip low surrogate
+                }
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            opos += ProcessNonAscii(c, output[opos..], fallback);
+            ipos++;
+        }
+
+        return opos;
+    }
+
+    private int ProcessNonAscii(char c, Span<char> output, char fallback)
+    {
+        // 1. Check special cases dictionary (ligatures, Cyrillic, etc.)
+        if (_mappings.TryGetValue(c, out var mapped))
+        {
+            if (mapped.Length == 0)
+            {
+                return 0; // Empty mapping = strip character
+            }
+            mapped.AsSpan().CopyTo(output);
+            return mapped.Length;
+        }
+
+        // 2. Try Unicode normalization (handles most accented chars)
+        var normLen = TryNormalize(c, output);
+        if (normLen > 0)
+        {
+            return normLen;
+        }
+
+        // 3. Control character handling
+        if (char.IsControl(c))
+        {
+            return 0; // Strip control characters
+        }
+
+        // 4. Whitespace normalization
+        if (char.IsWhiteSpace(c))
+        {
+            output[0] = ' ';
+            return 1;
+        }
+
+        // 5. Fallback for unmapped characters
+        output[0] = fallback;
+        return 1;
+    }
+
+    private static int TryNormalize(char c, Span<char> output)
+    {
+        // Skip characters that won't normalize to ASCII
+        if (c < '\u00C0')
+        {
+            return 0;
+        }
+
+        // Normalize to FormD (decomposed form)
+        ReadOnlySpan<char> input = stackalloc char[] { c };
+        var normalized = input.ToString().Normalize(NormalizationForm.FormD);
+
+        if (normalized.Length == 0)
+        {
+            return 0;
+        }
+
+        // Copy only base characters (skip combining marks)
+        var len = 0;
+        foreach (var ch in normalized)
+        {
+            var category = CharUnicodeInfo.GetUnicodeCategory(ch);
+
+            // Skip combining marks (diacritics)
+            if (category == UnicodeCategory.NonSpacingMark ||
+                category == UnicodeCategory.SpacingCombiningMark ||
+                category == UnicodeCategory.EnclosingMark)
+            {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            // Only keep if it's now ASCII
+            if (ch < '\u0080')
+            {
+                output[len++] = ch;
+            }
+        }
+
+        return len;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterGoldenTests.cs b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterGoldenTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2b9ea1ea97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterGoldenTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+using System.Text.Json;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions;
+using Moq;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Strings;
+
+namespace Umbraco.Cms.Tests.UnitTests.Umbraco.Core.Strings;
+
+[TestFixture]
+public class Utf8ToAsciiConverterGoldenTests
+{
+    private IUtf8ToAsciiConverter _newConverter = null!;
+    private static readonly Dictionary<string, string> GoldenMappings;
+
+    static Utf8ToAsciiConverterGoldenTests()
+    {
+        var testDataPath = Path.Combine(
+            AppContext.BaseDirectory,
+            "Umbraco.Core",
+            "Strings",
+            "TestData",
+            "golden-mappings.json");
+
+        if (File.Exists(testDataPath))
+        {
+            var json = File.ReadAllText(testDataPath);
+            var doc = JsonDocument.Parse(json);
+            GoldenMappings = doc.RootElement
+                .GetProperty("mappings")
+                .EnumerateObject()
+                .ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.Value.GetString() ?? "");
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            GoldenMappings = new Dictionary<string, string>();
+        }
+    }
+
+    [SetUp]
+    public void SetUp()
+    {
+        var hostEnv = new Mock<IHostEnvironment>();
+        hostEnv.Setup(h => h.ContentRootPath).Returns("/nonexistent");
+
+        var loader = new CharacterMappingLoader(
+            hostEnv.Object,
+            NullLogger<CharacterMappingLoader>.Instance);
+
+        _newConverter = new Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew(loader);
+    }
+
+    public static IEnumerable<TestCaseData> GetGoldenMappings()
+    {
+        foreach (var (input, expected) in GoldenMappings)
+        {
+            yield return new TestCaseData(input, expected);
+        }
+    }
+
+    [TestCaseSource(nameof(GetGoldenMappings))]
+    public void NewConverter_MatchesGoldenMapping(string input, string expected)
+    {
+        var result = _newConverter.Convert(input);
+        Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
+    }
+
+    [TestCaseSource(nameof(GetGoldenMappings))]
+    public void NewConverter_MatchesOriginalBehavior(string input, string expected)
+    {
+        // Compare new implementation against original
+        var originalResult = Utf8ToAsciiConverter.ToAsciiString(input);
+        var newResult = _newConverter.Convert(input);
+
+        Assert.That(newResult, Is.EqualTo(originalResult));
+    }
+}
diff --git a/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNewTests.cs b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNewTests.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1f9e9ec57d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Umbraco.Tests.UnitTests/Umbraco.Core/Strings/Utf8ToAsciiConverterNewTests.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
+using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Abstractions;
+using Moq;
+using NUnit.Framework;
+using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Strings;
+
+namespace Umbraco.Cms.Tests.UnitTests.Umbraco.Core.Strings;
+
+[TestFixture]
+public class Utf8ToAsciiConverterNewTests
+{
+    private IUtf8ToAsciiConverter _converter = null!;
+
+    [SetUp]
+    public void SetUp()
+    {
+        var hostEnv = new Mock<IHostEnvironment>();
+        hostEnv.Setup(h => h.ContentRootPath).Returns("/nonexistent");
+
+        var loader = new CharacterMappingLoader(
+            hostEnv.Object,
+            NullLogger<CharacterMappingLoader>.Instance);
+
+        _converter = new Utf8ToAsciiConverterNew(loader);
+    }
+
+    // === Null/Empty ===
+
+    [Test]
+    public void Convert_Null_ReturnsEmpty()
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(null), Is.EqualTo(string.Empty));
+
+    [Test]
+    public void Convert_Empty_ReturnsEmpty()
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(string.Empty), Is.EqualTo(string.Empty));
+
+    // === ASCII Fast Path ===
+
+    [TestCase("hello world", "hello world")]
+    [TestCase("ABC123", "ABC123")]
+    [TestCase("The quick brown fox", "The quick brown fox")]
+    public void Convert_AsciiOnly_ReturnsSameString(string input, string expected)
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+
+    // === Normalization (Accented Characters) ===
+
+    [TestCase("café", "cafe")]
+    [TestCase("naïve", "naive")]
+    [TestCase("résumé", "resume")]
+    public void Convert_AccentedChars_NormalizesCorrectly(string input, string expected)
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+
+    // === Ligatures ===
+
+    [TestCase("Œuvre", "OEuvre")]
+    [TestCase("Ærodynamic", "AErodynamic")]
+    [TestCase("straße", "strasse")]
+    public void Convert_Ligatures_ExpandsCorrectly(string input, string expected)
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+
+    // === Cyrillic ===
+
+    [TestCase("Москва", "Moskva")]
+    [TestCase("Борщ", "Borshch")]
+    [TestCase("Щука", "Shchuka")]
+    [TestCase("Привет", "Privet")]
+    public void Convert_Cyrillic_TransliteratesCorrectly(string input, string expected)
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+
+    // === Special Latin ===
+
+    [TestCase("Łódź", "Lodz")]
+    [TestCase("Ørsted", "Orsted")]
+    [TestCase("Þórr", "THorr")]
+    public void Convert_SpecialLatin_ConvertsCorrectly(string input, string expected)
+        => Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+
+    // === Span API ===
+
+    [Test]
+    public void Convert_SpanApi_WritesToOutputBuffer()
+    {
+        ReadOnlySpan<char> input = "café";
+        Span<char> output = stackalloc char[20];
+
+        var written = _converter.Convert(input, output);
+
+        Assert.That(written, Is.EqualTo(4));
+        Assert.That(new string(output[..written]), Is.EqualTo("cafe"));
+    }
+
+    [Test]
+    public void Convert_SpanApi_HandlesExpansion()
+    {
+        ReadOnlySpan<char> input = "Щ"; // Expands to "Shch" (4 chars)
+        Span<char> output = stackalloc char[20];
+
+        var written = _converter.Convert(input, output);
+
+        Assert.That(written, Is.EqualTo(4));
+        Assert.That(new string(output[..written]), Is.EqualTo("Shch"));
+    }
+
+    // === Mixed Content ===
+
+    [Test]
+    public void Convert_MixedContent_HandlesCorrectly()
+    {
+        var input = "Café Müller in Moskva";
+        var expected = "Cafe Muller in Moskva";
+
+        Assert.That(_converter.Convert(input), Is.EqualTo(expected));
+    }
+}