diff --git a/pandas/io/parsers.py b/pandas/io/parsers.py
index 9a4316f62bf11..78f2a7c990e06 100755
--- a/pandas/io/parsers.py
+++ b/pandas/io/parsers.py
@@ -2545,7 +2545,7 @@ def _infer_columns(self):
 
                         while cur_count > 0:
                             counts[col] = cur_count + 1
-                            col = "{column}.{count}".format(
+                            col = u'{column}.{count}'.format(
                                 column=col, count=cur_count)
                             cur_count = counts[col]