diff --git a/MySQLdb/connections.py b/MySQLdb/connections.py
index 38324665..1ea214ad 100644
--- a/MySQLdb/connections.py
+++ b/MySQLdb/connections.py
@@ -97,6 +97,14 @@ class object, used to create cursors (keyword only)
             If supplied, the connection character set will be changed
             to this character set.
 
+        :param str collation:
+            If ``charset`` and ``collation`` are both supplied, the
+            character set and collation for the current connection
+            will be set.
+
+            If omitted, empty string, or None, the default collation
+            for the ``charset`` is implied.
+
         :param str auth_plugin:
             If supplied, the connection default authentication plugin will be
             changed to this value. Example values:
@@ -168,6 +176,7 @@ class object, used to create cursors (keyword only)
 
         cursorclass = kwargs2.pop("cursorclass", self.default_cursor)
         charset = kwargs2.get("charset", "")
+        collation = kwargs2.pop("collation", "")
         use_unicode = kwargs2.pop("use_unicode", True)
         sql_mode = kwargs2.pop("sql_mode", "")
         self._binary_prefix = kwargs2.pop("binary_prefix", False)
@@ -194,7 +203,7 @@ class object, used to create cursors (keyword only)
 
         if not charset:
             charset = self.character_set_name()
-        self.set_character_set(charset)
+        self.set_character_set(charset, collation)
 
         if sql_mode:
             self.set_sql_mode(sql_mode)
@@ -293,10 +302,13 @@ def begin(self):
         """
         self.query(b"BEGIN")
 
-    def set_character_set(self, charset):
+    def set_character_set(self, charset, collation=None):
         """Set the connection character set to charset."""
         super().set_character_set(charset)
         self.encoding = _charset_to_encoding.get(charset, charset)
+        if collation:
+            self.query("SET NAMES %s COLLATE %s" % (charset, collation))
+            self.store_result()
 
     def set_sql_mode(self, sql_mode):
         """Set the connection sql_mode. See MySQL documentation for
diff --git a/doc/user_guide.rst b/doc/user_guide.rst
index 555adf15..5c9577bc 100644
--- a/doc/user_guide.rst
+++ b/doc/user_guide.rst
@@ -348,6 +348,22 @@ connect(parameters...)
 
             *This must be a keyword parameter.*
 
+         collation
+            If ``charset`` and ``collation`` are both supplied, the
+            character set and collation for the current connection
+            will be set.
+
+            If omitted, empty string, or None, the default collation
+            for the ``charset`` is implied by the database server.
+
+            To learn more about the quiddities of character sets and
+            collations, consult the `MySQL docs
+            <https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/charset.html>`_
+            and `MariaDB docs
+            <https://mariadb.com/kb/en/character-sets/>`_
+
+            *This must be a keyword parameter.*
+
          sql_mode
             If present, the session SQL mode will be set to the given
             string. For more information on sql_mode, see the MySQL
diff --git a/tests/test_MySQLdb_nonstandard.py b/tests/test_MySQLdb_nonstandard.py
index c517dad3..5e841791 100644
--- a/tests/test_MySQLdb_nonstandard.py
+++ b/tests/test_MySQLdb_nonstandard.py
@@ -114,3 +114,33 @@ def test_context_manager(self):
         with connection_factory() as conn:
             self.assertFalse(conn.closed)
         self.assertTrue(conn.closed)
+
+
+class TestCollation(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Test charset and collation connection options."""
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        # Initialize a connection with a non-default character set and
+        # collation.
+        self.conn = connection_factory(
+            charset="utf8mb4",
+            collation="utf8mb4_esperanto_ci",
+        )
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.conn.close()
+
+    def test_charset_collation(self):
+        c = self.conn.cursor()
+        c.execute(
+            """
+            SHOW VARIABLES WHERE
+            Variable_Name="character_set_connection" OR
+            Variable_Name="collation_connection";
+            """
+        )
+        row = c.fetchall()
+        charset = row[0][1]
+        collation = row[1][1]
+        self.assertEqual(charset, "utf8mb4")
+        self.assertEqual(collation, "utf8mb4_esperanto_ci")