diff --git a/active_help.go b/active_help.go
index 2d0239437a..5f965e057f 100644
--- a/active_help.go
+++ b/active_help.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package cobra
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
+	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 )
 
@@ -29,6 +30,8 @@ const (
 	activeHelpGlobalDisable = "0"
 )
 
+var activeHelpEnvVarPrefixSubstRegexp = regexp.MustCompile(`[^A-Z0-9_]`)
+
 // AppendActiveHelp adds the specified string to the specified array to be used as ActiveHelp.
 // Such strings will be processed by the completion script and will be shown as ActiveHelp
 // to the user.
@@ -42,7 +45,7 @@ func AppendActiveHelp(compArray []string, activeHelpStr string) []string {
 
 // GetActiveHelpConfig returns the value of the ActiveHelp environment variable
 // <PROGRAM>_ACTIVE_HELP where <PROGRAM> is the name of the root command in upper
-// case, with all - replaced by _.
+// case, with all non-ASCII-alphanumeric characters replaced by `_`.
 // It will always return "0" if the global environment variable COBRA_ACTIVE_HELP
 // is set to "0".
 func GetActiveHelpConfig(cmd *Command) string {
@@ -55,9 +58,10 @@ func GetActiveHelpConfig(cmd *Command) string {
 
 // activeHelpEnvVar returns the name of the program-specific ActiveHelp environment
 // variable.  It has the format <PROGRAM>_ACTIVE_HELP where <PROGRAM> is the name of the
-// root command in upper case, with all - replaced by _.
+// root command in upper case, with all non-ASCII-alphanumeric characters replaced by `_`.
 func activeHelpEnvVar(name string) string {
 	// This format should not be changed: users will be using it explicitly.
 	activeHelpEnvVar := strings.ToUpper(fmt.Sprintf("%s%s", name, activeHelpEnvVarSuffix))
-	return strings.ReplaceAll(activeHelpEnvVar, "-", "_")
+	activeHelpEnvVar = activeHelpEnvVarPrefixSubstRegexp.ReplaceAllString(activeHelpEnvVar, "_")
+	return activeHelpEnvVar
 }
diff --git a/active_help.md b/active_help.md
index 5e7f59af38..011ed2ab76 100644
--- a/active_help.md
+++ b/active_help.md
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Allowing to configure Active Help is entirely optional; you can use Active Help
 
 The way to configure Active Help is to use the program's Active Help environment
 variable.  That variable is named `<PROGRAM>_ACTIVE_HELP` where `<PROGRAM>` is the name of your 
-program in uppercase with any `-` replaced by an `_`.  The variable should be set by the user to whatever
+program in uppercase with any non-ASCII-alphanumeric characters replaced by an `_`.  The variable should be set by the user to whatever
 Active Help configuration values are supported by the program.
 
 For example, say `helm` has chosen to support three levels for Active Help: `on`, `off`, `local`.  Then a user