diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b881ad0..35e8370 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ set(META_ADD_DEFAULT_CPP_UNIT_TEST_APPLICATION OFF)
 project(${META_PROJECT_NAME})
 
 # add project files
-set(HEADER_FILES renderer.h icon.h iconfwd.h)
-set(SRC_FILES renderer.cpp)
+set(HEADER_FILES renderer.h icon.h iconfwd.h utils.h)
+set(SRC_FILES renderer.cpp utils.cpp)
 set(QT_TESTS renderer)
 set(DOC_FILES README.md)
 
@@ -68,12 +68,13 @@ list(APPEND RES_FILES "${RES_FILE_PATH}")
 find_program(PERL perl)
 set(GENERATED_HEADERS_PATH "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/headers")
 set(ICONS_HEADER_FILE "${GENERATED_HEADERS_PATH}/private/icons.h")
+set(ID_MAPPING_HEADER_FILE "${GENERATED_HEADERS_PATH}/private/idmapping.h")
 file(MAKE_DIRECTORY "${GENERATED_HEADERS_PATH}/private")
-list(APPEND SRC_FILES "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}")
+list(APPEND SRC_FILES "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}" "${ID_MAPPING_HEADER_FILE}")
 add_custom_command(
-    OUTPUT "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}"
+    OUTPUT "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}" "${ID_MAPPING_HEADER_FILE}"
     COMMAND "${PERL}" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/scripts/yaml2enum.pl" "${FORK_AWESOME_ICON_DEFINITIONS}"
-            "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}"
+            "${ICONS_HEADER_FILE}" "${ID_MAPPING_HEADER_FILE}"
     DEPENDS "${FORK_AWESOME_ICON_DEFINITIONS}"
     COMMENT "Icon header")
 
diff --git a/icon.h b/icon.h
index 989f893..61fd585 100644
--- a/icon.h
+++ b/icon.h
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 namespace QtForkAwesome {
 
 enum class Icon : IconBaseType {
+    Invalid, /**< invalid, used by QtForkAwesome::iconFromId() to indicate failure */
 #include "private/icons.h"
 };
 
diff --git a/renderer.h b/renderer.h
index e810c83..f47c73e 100644
--- a/renderer.h
+++ b/renderer.h
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QPainter)
 QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QRect)
 QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QSize)
 QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QPixmap)
+QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QIcon)
 
 namespace QtForkAwesome {
 
diff --git a/scripts/yaml2enum.pl b/scripts/yaml2enum.pl
index 3b93d8f..e156711 100755
--- a/scripts/yaml2enum.pl
+++ b/scripts/yaml2enum.pl
@@ -12,11 +12,12 @@ my $parse_yaml
 die "Unable to locate YAML::XS or YAML: $@" if $@;
 
 # read CLI args
-my $yaml_file   = $ARGV[0] // '';
-my $output_file = $ARGV[1] // '';
+my $yaml_file        = $ARGV[0] // '';
+my $enum_output_file = $ARGV[1] // '';
+my $id_output_file   = $ARGV[2] // '';
 die "The specified file \"$yaml_file\" does not exist.\n" unless -f $yaml_file;
-die "No output file specified.\n" unless $output_file;
-print "$yaml_file -> $output_file\n";
+die "No enum output file specified.\n" unless $enum_output_file;
+die "No ID output file specified.\n"   unless $id_output_file;
 
 # read input file manually (instead of using LoadFile) to fix screwed indentation
 open my $yaml_fh, '<', $yaml_file or die "Can't open \"$yaml_file\": $!";
@@ -27,7 +28,8 @@ $yaml =~ s/    - name:/  - name:/g;
 my $icon_defs = $parse_yaml->($yaml);
 my $icons     = ref $icon_defs eq 'HASH' ? $icon_defs->{icons} : [];
 die "No icons present in \"$yaml_file\".\n" unless ref $icons eq 'ARRAY' && @$icons;
-open my $output, '>:encoding(UTF-8)', $output_file or die "Can't open output file \"$output_file\": $!\n";
+open my $enum_output, '>:encoding(UTF-8)', $enum_output_file or die "Can't open output file \"$enum_output_file\": $!\n";
+open my $id_output,   '>:encoding(UTF-8)', $id_output_file   or die "Can't open output file \"$id_output_file\": $!\n";
 
 # define function to camelize IDs
 sub camelize ($s) { $s =~ s/(-)?([\w']+)/\u\L$2/g; $s }
@@ -44,5 +46,6 @@ for my $icon (@$icons) {
     my $category     = join ',', @$categories;
     my $camelized_id = camelize $id;
     $camelized_id = "Icon$camelized_id" if $camelized_id =~ qr/^\d+.*/;
-    print $output "$camelized_id = 0x$unicode, /**< $id: name: $name, created: $created, category: $category */\n";
+    print $enum_output "$camelized_id = 0x$unicode, /**< $id: name: $name, created: $created, category: $category */\n";
+    print $id_output   "{ QStringLiteral(\"$id\"), Icon::$camelized_id },\n";
 }
diff --git a/utils.cpp b/utils.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4abe89f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#ifndef QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS
+#define QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS
+
+#include "./utils.h"
+#include "./icon.h"
+
+#include <QHash>
+#include <QString>
+
+namespace QtForkAwesome {
+
+/*!
+ * \brief Returns a QtForkAwesome::Icon for the specified icon \a id.
+ * \param id Specifies the icon ID, that's the "name" used on https://forkaweso.me/Fork-Awesome/icons.
+ * \returns Returns the QtForkAwesome::Icon which might be QtForkAwesome::Icon::Invalid in case the
+ *          specified \a id is unknown.
+ */
+Icon iconFromId(const QString &id)
+{
+    static const auto mapping = QHash<QString, Icon>({
+#include "private/idmapping.h"
+    });
+    const auto icon = mapping.find(id);
+    return icon != mapping.cend() ? *icon : Icon::Invalid;
+}
+
+} // namespace QtForkAwesome
+
+#endif // QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS
diff --git a/utils.h b/utils.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1de8edd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils.h
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#ifndef QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS
+#define QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS
+
+#include "./global.h"
+#include "./iconfwd.h"
+
+QT_FORWARD_DECLARE_CLASS(QString)
+
+namespace QtForkAwesome {
+
+constexpr bool isIconValid(Icon icon)
+{
+    return static_cast<IconBaseType>(icon);
+}
+
+QT_FORK_AWESOME_EXPORT Icon iconFromId(const QString &id);
+
+} // namespace QtForkAwesome
+
+#endif // QT_FORK_AWESOME_UTILS