diff --git a/Foundation/include/Poco/UUID.h b/Foundation/include/Poco/UUID.h
index a08f2d0b6..db0f532e5 100644
--- a/Foundation/include/Poco/UUID.h
+++ b/Foundation/include/Poco/UUID.h
@@ -96,6 +96,12 @@ public:
 	void parse(const std::string& uuid);
 		/// Parses the UUID from its string representation.
 
+	bool tryParse(const std::string& uuid);
+		/// Tries to interpret the given string as an UUID.
+		/// If the UUID is syntactically valid, assigns the
+		/// members and returns true. Otherwise leaves the 
+		/// object unchanged and returns false.
+
 	std::string toString() const;
 		/// Returns a string representation of the UUID consisting
 		/// of groups of hexadecimal digits separated by hyphens.
@@ -129,12 +135,12 @@ public:
 	bool operator >  (const UUID& uuid) const;
 	bool operator >= (const UUID& uuid) const;
 	
-	bool isNil() const;
+	bool isNull() const;
 		/// Returns true iff the UUID is nil (in other words,
 		/// consists of all zeros).
 
-	static const UUID& nil();
-		/// Returns a nil UUID.
+	static const UUID& null();
+		/// Returns a null/nil UUID.
 
 	static const UUID& dns();
 		/// Returns the namespace identifier for the DNS namespace.
@@ -215,9 +221,9 @@ inline UUID::Version UUID::version() const
 }
 
 
-inline bool UUID::isNil() const
+inline bool UUID::isNull() const
 {
-	return compare(nil()) == 0;
+	return compare(null()) == 0;
 }