diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/tblcoll.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/tblcoll.cpp
index 08f7858cc4b..2ee507e57cc 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/tblcoll.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/tblcoll.cpp
@@ -482,6 +482,18 @@ int32_t RuleBasedCollator::hashCode() const
   return uhash_hashUCharsN(rules, length);
 }
 
+/**
+* return the locale of this collator
+*/
+const Locale RuleBasedCollator::getLocale(UErrorCode &status) const {
+  const char *result = ucol_getLocale(ucollator, &status);
+  if(result == NULL) {
+    return Locale("");
+  } else {
+    return Locale(result);
+  }
+}
+
 /**
 * Set the decomposition mode of the Collator object.
 * @param the new decomposition mode
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/ucol.cpp b/icu4c/source/i18n/ucol.cpp
index b47c41233f3..6e3d77ca34c 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/ucol.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/ucol.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #include "bocsu.h"
 
 #include "unormimp.h"
+#include "uresimp.h"
 #include "cstring.h"
 #include "umutex.h"
 #include "uhash.h"
@@ -280,7 +281,13 @@ ucol_open(    const    char         *loc,
   if(*status == U_MISSING_RESOURCE_ERROR) { /* if we don't find tailoring, we'll fallback to UCA */
     *status = U_USING_DEFAULT_ERROR;
     result = ucol_initCollator(UCA->image, result, status);
-    /*result = UCA;*/
+    // if we use UCA, real locale is root
+    result->rb = ures_open(NULL, "", status);
+    if(U_FAILURE(*status)) {
+      goto clean;
+    }
+    ures_close(binary);
+    ures_close(b);
     result->hasRealData = FALSE;
   } else if(U_SUCCESS(*status)) { /* otherwise, we'll pick a collation data that exists */
     int32_t len = 0;
@@ -302,16 +309,25 @@ ucol_open(    const    char         *loc,
       }
       result->hasRealData = FALSE;
     }
+    const char *realCollationDataLocale = ures_getLocale(binary, status);
+    ures_close(binary);
+    // if the real data came from the fallback, we want to drag around 
+    // the real resource bundle
+    if(uprv_strcmp(ures_getLocale(b, status), realCollationDataLocale) != NULL) {
+      result->rb = ures_open(NULL, realCollationDataLocale, status);
+      if(U_FAILURE(*status)) {
+        goto clean;
+      }
+      ures_close(b);
+    } else { // otherwise, we'll keep the initial RB around
+      result->rb = b;
+    }
   } else { /* There is another error, and we're just gonna clean up */
 clean:
     ures_close(b);
     ures_close(binary);
     return NULL;
   }
-
-  result->rb = b;
-  ures_close(binary);
-
   return result;
 }
 
@@ -5640,3 +5656,16 @@ ucol_equal(        const    UCollator        *coll,
       == UCOL_EQUAL);
 }
 
+/* returns the locale name the collation data comes from */
+U_CAPI const char * U_EXPORT2
+ucol_getLocale(const UCollator *coll, UErrorCode *status) {
+  if(status == NULL || U_FAILURE(*status)) {
+    return NULL;
+  }
+  if(coll->rb != NULL) {
+    return ures_getLocale(coll->rb, status);
+  } else {
+    return NULL;
+  }
+}
+
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/coll.h b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/coll.h
index 923f4ee1dfb..033c70fe5b2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/coll.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/coll.h
@@ -399,6 +399,12 @@ public:
   */
   virtual int32_t hashCode(void) const = 0;
 
+  /**
+  * Gets the locale of the Collator
+  * @draft ICU 2.1
+  */
+  virtual const Locale getLocale(UErrorCode& status) const = 0;
+
   /**
   * Convenience method for comparing two strings based on the collation rules.
   * @param source the source string to be compared with.
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/tblcoll.h b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/tblcoll.h
index bf7f148685e..dfe0c8fc3a0 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/tblcoll.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/tblcoll.h
@@ -335,6 +335,14 @@ public:
    */
   virtual int32_t hashCode(void) const;
 
+  /**
+  * Gets the locale of the Collator
+  * @return locale where the collation data lives. If the collator
+  *         was instantiated from rules, locale is empty.
+  * @draft ICU 2.1
+  */
+  virtual const Locale getLocale(UErrorCode& status) const;
+
   /**
    * Gets the table-based rules for the collation object.
    * @return returns the collation rules that the table collation object was
diff --git a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ucol.h b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ucol.h
index 08d6cce2aa0..e3e9601d5d2 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ucol.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/i18n/unicode/ucol.h
@@ -743,6 +743,19 @@ U_CAPI void U_EXPORT2
 ucol_setNormalization(  UCollator        *coll,
             UNormalizationMode    mode);
 
+/**
+ * gets the locale name of the collator. If the collator
+ * is instantiated from the rules, then this function returns
+ * NULL.
+ * @param coll The UCollator for which the locale is needed
+ * @param status error code of the operation
+ * @return real locale name from which the collation data comes. 
+ *         If the collator was instantiated from rules, returns
+ *         NULL.
+ */
+U_CAPI const char * U_EXPORT2
+ucol_getLocale(const UCollator *coll, UErrorCode *status);
+
 /**
  *@deprecated Remove after Aug 2002
  */