diff --git a/lib/buffer.js b/lib/buffer.js
index f4d16f41fc93dd..e97f366b4953e8 100644
--- a/lib/buffer.js
+++ b/lib/buffer.js
@@ -672,23 +672,27 @@ Buffer.prototype.fill = function fill(val, start, end, encoding) {
       encoding = end;
       end = this.length;
     }
-    if (val.length === 1) {
-      var code = val.charCodeAt(0);
-      if (code < 256)
-        val = code;
-    }
-    if (val.length === 0) {
-      // Previously, if val === '', the Buffer would not fill,
-      // which is rather surprising.
-      val = 0;
-    }
+
     if (encoding !== undefined && typeof encoding !== 'string') {
       throw new TypeError('encoding must be a string');
     }
-    if (typeof encoding === 'string' && !Buffer.isEncoding(encoding)) {
+    var normalizedEncoding = internalUtil.normalizeEncoding(encoding);
+    if (normalizedEncoding === undefined) {
       throw new TypeError('Unknown encoding: ' + encoding);
     }
 
+    if (val.length === 0) {
+      // Previously, if val === '', the Buffer would not fill,
+      // which is rather surprising.
+      val = 0;
+    } else if (val.length === 1) {
+      var code = val.charCodeAt(0);
+      if ((normalizedEncoding === 'utf8' && code < 128) ||
+          normalizedEncoding === 'latin1') {
+        // Fast path: If `val` fits into a single byte, use that numeric value.
+        val = code;
+      }
+    }
   } else if (typeof val === 'number') {
     val = val & 255;
   }
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-buffer-fill.js b/test/parallel/test-buffer-fill.js
index c61ad59d7e9cfe..f613d1a31a9f55 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-buffer-fill.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-buffer-fill.js
@@ -390,3 +390,23 @@ assert.throws(() => {
   });
   buf.fill('');
 });
+
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('a', 'utf16le').toString('utf16le'),
+    'aaaaaaaa');
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('a', 'latin1').toString('latin1'),
+    'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('a', 'utf8').toString('utf8'),
+    'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa');
+
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('Љ', 'utf16le').toString('utf16le'),
+    'ЉЉЉЉЉЉЉЉ');
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('Љ', 'latin1').toString('latin1'),
+    '\t'.repeat(16));
+assert.strictEqual(
+    Buffer.allocUnsafeSlow(16).fill('Љ', 'utf8').toString('utf8'),
+    'ЉЉЉЉЉЉЉЉ');