diff --git a/src/string.sip b/src/string.sip
index f0ebd4bb..34da17bf 100644
--- a/src/string.sip
+++ b/src/string.sip
@@ -77,10 +77,10 @@
 
 // Used just for testing the MappedType code, it can be removed later
 %ModuleCode
-wxString testStringTypemap(const wxString& str)
+wxString _testStringTypemap(const wxString& str)
 {
     wxString local = str;
     return local;
 }
 %End
-wxString testStringTypemap(const wxString& str);
+wxString _testStringTypemap(const wxString& str);
diff --git a/unittests/test_string.py b/unittests/test_string.py
index 6c1ab4af..5b6b2b22 100644
--- a/unittests/test_string.py
+++ b/unittests/test_string.py
@@ -6,53 +6,53 @@ import wx
 
 class String(unittest.TestCase):
         
-    if hasattr(wx, 'testStringTypemap'):
+    if hasattr(wx, '_testStringTypemap'):
         def test_StringTypemaps(self):
             utf  = '\xc3\xa9l\xc3\xa9phant'    # utf-8 string
             uni  = utf.decode('utf-8')         # convert to unicode
             iso  = uni.encode('iso-8859-1')    # make a string with a different encoding
 
             
-            # wx.testStringTypemap() will accept a parameter that is a Unicode object 
+            # wx._testStringTypemap() will accept a parameter that is a Unicode object 
             # or an 'ascii' or 'utf-8' string object, which will then be converted to 
             # a wxString.  The return value is a Unicode object that has been 
             # converted from a wxString that is a copy of the wxString created for 
             # the parameter.
             
             # ascii
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap('hello')
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap('hello')
             self.assertTrue(type(result) == unicode)
             self.assertTrue(result == u'hello')
                    
             # unicode should pass through unmodified
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap(uni)
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap(uni)
             self.assertTrue(result == uni)
             
             # utf-8 is converted
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap(utf)
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap(utf)
             self.assertTrue(result == uni)
             
             # can't auto-convert this
             with self.assertRaises(UnicodeDecodeError):
-                result = wx.testStringTypemap(iso)
+                result = wx._testStringTypemap(iso)
                 
             # utf-16-be
             val = "\x00\xe9\x00l\x00\xe9\x00p\x00h\x00a\x00n\x00t"
             with self.assertRaises(UnicodeDecodeError):
-                result = wx.testStringTypemap(val)
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap( val.decode('utf-16-be'))
+                result = wx._testStringTypemap(val)
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap( val.decode('utf-16-be'))
             self.assertTrue(result == uni)
             
             # utf-32-be
             val = "\x00\x00\x00\xe9\x00\x00\x00l\x00\x00\x00\xe9\x00\x00\x00p\x00\x00\x00h\x00\x00\x00a\x00\x00\x00n\x00\x00\x00t"
             with self.assertRaises(UnicodeDecodeError):
-                result = wx.testStringTypemap(val)
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap(val.decode('utf-32-be'))
+                result = wx._testStringTypemap(val)
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap(val.decode('utf-32-be'))
             self.assertTrue(result == uni)
 
             # utf-8 with BOM
             val = "\xef\xbb\xbfHello"
-            result = wx.testStringTypemap(val)
+            result = wx._testStringTypemap(val)
             self.assertTrue(result == u'\ufeffHello')
 
 #---------------------------------------------------------------------------