diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.005.ddl.sqlpp b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.005.ddl.sqlpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ca6e5b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.005.ddl.sqlpp
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*
+ * 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.
+ */
+// should fail. first character needs to be a letter
+CREATE COLLECTION db1.dv1.`123collection` PRIMARY KEY (id:int);
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.006.ddl.sqlpp b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.006.ddl.sqlpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f322341
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.006.ddl.sqlpp
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*
+ * 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.
+ */
+// should fail. first character needs to be a letter
+CREATE DATAVERSE db1.`12dataverse`;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.007.ddl.sqlpp b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.007.ddl.sqlpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1b646c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/queries_sqlpp/cloud_storage/disallowed-chars/test.007.ddl.sqlpp
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*
+ * 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.
+ */
+// should fail. first character needs to be a letter
+CREATE DATABASE `1db`;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_cloud_storage.xml b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_cloud_storage.xml
index 6359d8a..6a75394 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_cloud_storage.xml
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/resources/runtimets/testsuite_cloud_storage.xml
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@
         <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: 'dv.with.dot'</expected-error>
         <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: 'col.with.dot'</expected-error>
         <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: 'db.with.dot'</expected-error>
+        <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: '123collection'</expected-error>
+        <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: '12dataverse'</expected-error>
+        <expected-error>ASX1115: Invalid name for a database object: '1db'</expected-error>
       </compilation-unit>
     </test-case>
   </test-group>
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 68a49fa..107cfb2 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
@@ -1956,10 +1956,16 @@
     private static void validateChars(String name, SourceLocation srcLoc) throws AsterixException {
         for (int off = 0, len = name.length(); off < len;) {
             int codePointChar = name.codePointAt(off);
-            if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(codePointChar)) {
-                if (codePointChar != '_' && codePointChar != '-') {
+            if (off == 0) {
+                if (!Character.isLetter(codePointChar)) {
                     throw new AsterixException(ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, srcLoc, name);
                 }
+            } else {
+                if (!Character.isLetterOrDigit(codePointChar)) {
+                    if (codePointChar != '_' && codePointChar != '-') {
+                        throw new AsterixException(ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, srcLoc, name);
+                    }
+                }
             }
             off += Character.charCount(codePointChar);
         }