diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerTest.java
index f8d6aeb..946d116 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerTest.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerTest.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
  */
 package org.apache.asterix.test.metadata;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.List;
@@ -161,4 +162,29 @@
             }
         }
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testInvalidCharacters() throws Exception {
+        TestCaseContext.OutputFormat cleanJson = TestCaseContext.OutputFormat.CLEAN_JSON;
+
+        List<DataverseName> dvNameBadCharsList = Arrays.asList(
+                // #1. nul characters
+                DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc\u0000def"),
+                // #2. leading whitespace
+                DataverseName.createSinglePartName(" abcdef"),
+                // #2. file separator
+                DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc" + File.separatorChar + "def"));
+
+        ErrorCode invalidNameErrCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME;
+        for (DataverseName dvNameOk : dvNameBadCharsList) {
+            String sql = String.format("create dataverse %s;", dvNameOk);
+            try {
+                testExecutor.executeSqlppUpdateOrDdl(sql, cleanJson);
+                Assert.fail("Expected failure: " + invalidNameErrCode);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                Assert.assertTrue("Unexpected error message: " + e.getMessage(),
+                        e.getMessage().contains(invalidNameErrCode.errorCode()));
+            }
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerWindowsOsTest.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerWindowsOsTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9f25e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/metadata/MetadataManagerWindowsOsTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.test.metadata;
+
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.apache.asterix.api.common.AsterixHyracksIntegrationUtil;
+import org.apache.asterix.common.config.GlobalConfig;
+import org.apache.asterix.common.exceptions.ErrorCode;
+import org.apache.asterix.common.metadata.DataverseName;
+import org.apache.asterix.test.common.TestExecutor;
+import org.apache.asterix.testframework.context.TestCaseContext;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.SystemUtils;
+import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class MetadataManagerWindowsOsTest {
+
+    static {
+        System.setProperty("os.name", "Windows");
+    }
+
+    protected static final String TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME = "src/main/resources/cc.conf";
+    private static final TestExecutor testExecutor = new TestExecutor();
+    private static final AsterixHyracksIntegrationUtil integrationUtil = new AsterixHyracksIntegrationUtil();
+
+    @Before
+    public void setUp() throws Exception {
+        System.setProperty(GlobalConfig.CONFIG_FILE_PROPERTY, TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME);
+        integrationUtil.init(true, TEST_CONFIG_FILE_NAME);
+        Assert.assertTrue("wrong os reported", SystemUtils.IS_OS_WINDOWS);
+    }
+
+    @After
+    public void tearDown() throws Exception {
+        integrationUtil.deinit(true);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testInvalidCharacters() throws Exception {
+        TestCaseContext.OutputFormat cleanJson = TestCaseContext.OutputFormat.CLEAN_JSON;
+
+        List<DataverseName> dvNameBadCharsList = new ArrayList<>();
+
+        for (char c = 0; c <= 0x1F; c++) {
+            dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName(c));
+        }
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('\u007f'));
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('\\'));
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('/'));
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('>'));
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('\n'));
+        dvNameBadCharsList.add(badCharName('|'));
+
+        ErrorCode invalidNameErrCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME;
+        for (DataverseName dvNameOk : dvNameBadCharsList) {
+            String sql = String.format("create dataverse %s;", dvNameOk);
+            try {
+                testExecutor.executeSqlppUpdateOrDdl(sql, cleanJson);
+                Assert.fail("Expected failure: " + invalidNameErrCode);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                Assert.assertTrue("Unexpected error message: " + e.getMessage(),
+                        e.getMessage().contains(invalidNameErrCode.errorCode()));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    @NotNull
+    protected DataverseName badCharName(char c) {
+        return DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc" + c + "def");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/declared/MetadataProvider.java b/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/declared/MetadataProvider.java
index 9b85601..a534954 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/declared/MetadataProvider.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/declared/MetadataProvider.java
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
  */
 package org.apache.asterix.metadata.declared;
 
+import static org.apache.asterix.metadata.utils.MetadataConstants.METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_INVALID_CHARS;
+
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
@@ -1768,7 +1770,7 @@
         if (name == null || name.isEmpty()) {
             throw new AsterixException(ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, sourceLoc, "<empty>");
         }
-        if (Character.isWhitespace(name.codePointAt(0))) {
+        if (Character.isWhitespace(name.codePointAt(0)) || METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_INVALID_CHARS.matcher(name).find()) {
             throw new AsterixException(ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, sourceLoc, name);
         }
         int lengthUTF8 = name.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length;
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/utils/MetadataConstants.java b/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/utils/MetadataConstants.java
index 6bd52fa..f1412db 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/utils/MetadataConstants.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-metadata/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/metadata/utils/MetadataConstants.java
@@ -19,15 +19,20 @@
 
 package org.apache.asterix.metadata.utils;
 
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
 import org.apache.asterix.common.metadata.DataverseName;
+import org.apache.commons.lang3.SystemUtils;
 
 /**
  * Contains metadata constants
  */
 public class MetadataConstants {
 
-    public static final int METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 = 255;
-    public static final int DATAVERSE_NAME_TOTAL_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 = 1023;
+    public static final int METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 = 251;
+    public static final int DATAVERSE_NAME_TOTAL_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 = METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 * 4;
+    public static final Pattern METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_INVALID_CHARS =
+            Pattern.compile(SystemUtils.IS_OS_WINDOWS ? "[\u0000-\u001F\u007F\"*/:<>\\\\|+,.;=\\[\\]\n]" : "[\u0000/]");
 
     // Name of the dataverse the metadata lives in.
     public static final DataverseName METADATA_DATAVERSE_NAME = DataverseName.createBuiltinDataverseName("Metadata");