diff --git a/src/basic/af-list.c b/src/basic/af-list.c
index 7e819d6d11..a9ab891e20 100644
--- a/src/basic/af-list.c
+++ b/src/basic/af-list.c
@@ -38,3 +38,15 @@ int af_from_name(const char *name) {
 int af_max(void) {
         return ELEMENTSOF(af_names);
 }
+
+const char *af_to_ipv4_ipv6(int id) {
+        /* Pretty often we want to map the address family to the typically used protocol name for IPv4 +
+         * IPv6. Let's add special helpers for that. */
+        return id == AF_INET ? "ipv4" :
+                id == AF_INET6 ? "ipv6" : NULL;
+}
+
+int af_from_ipv4_ipv6(const char *af) {
+        return streq_ptr(af, "ipv4") ? AF_INET :
+                streq_ptr(af, "ipv6") ? AF_INET6 : AF_UNSPEC;
+}
diff --git a/src/basic/af-list.h b/src/basic/af-list.h
index 688ac63df7..9592b9ed3c 100644
--- a/src/basic/af-list.h
+++ b/src/basic/af-list.h
@@ -22,4 +22,7 @@ static inline const char* af_to_name_short(int id) {
         return f + 3;
 }
 
+const char* af_to_ipv4_ipv6(int id);
+int af_from_ipv4_ipv6(const char *af);
+
 int af_max(void);