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 946d116..eed9ae1 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
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 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.common.utils.StoragePathUtil;
 import org.apache.asterix.metadata.utils.MetadataConstants;
 import org.apache.asterix.test.common.TestExecutor;
 import org.apache.asterix.testframework.context.TestCaseContext;
@@ -100,7 +101,14 @@
                                 StringUtils.repeat(euml, MetadataConstants.METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 / 2),
                                 StringUtils.repeat(auml, MetadataConstants.METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 / 2),
                                 StringUtils.repeat(euml,
-                                        MetadataConstants.METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 / 2))));
+                                        MetadataConstants.METADATA_OBJECT_NAME_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8 / 2))),
+                        // #4. single-part name containing continuation char
+                        DataverseName
+                                .createSinglePartName("abc" + StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER + "def"),
+                        // #5. multi-part name containing continuation chars
+                        DataverseName
+                                .create(Arrays.asList("abc" + StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER + "def",
+                                        StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER + "def")));
 
         for (DataverseName dvNameOk : dvNameOkList) {
             String sql = String.format("create dataverse %s;", dvNameOk);
@@ -172,8 +180,13 @@
                 DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc\u0000def"),
                 // #2. leading whitespace
                 DataverseName.createSinglePartName(" abcdef"),
-                // #2. file separator
-                DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc" + File.separatorChar + "def"));
+                // #3. file separator
+                DataverseName.createSinglePartName("abc" + File.separatorChar + "def"),
+                // #4. single-part starting with ^
+                DataverseName.createSinglePartName(StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER + "abcdef"),
+                // #5. multi-part w/ first part starting with ^
+                DataverseName
+                        .create(Arrays.asList(StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER + "abcdef", "abcdef")));
 
         ErrorCode invalidNameErrCode = ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME;
         for (DataverseName dvNameOk : dvNameBadCharsList) {
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/storage/ResourceReference.java b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/storage/ResourceReference.java
index 0e78152..94a5f2a 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/storage/ResourceReference.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-common/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/common/storage/ResourceReference.java
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@
         dataset = tokens[--offset];
         List<String> dvParts = new ArrayList<>();
         String dvPart = tokens[--offset];
-        while (dvPart.charAt(0) == StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER) {
+        while (dvPart.codePointAt(0) == StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER) {
             dvParts.add(dvPart.substring(1));
             dvPart = tokens[--offset];
         }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/FeedUtils.java b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/FeedUtils.java
index 7f3d911..0a91ae8 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/FeedUtils.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-external-data/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/external/util/FeedUtils.java
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@
         String relPathFile = StoragePathUtil.prepareDataverseComponentName(dataverseName, feedName);
         String storagePartitionPath = StoragePathUtil.prepareStoragePartitionPath(partition.getPartitionId());
         // Note: feed adapter instances in a single node share the feed logger
-        // format: 'storage dir name'/partition_#/dataverse_part1[/ dataverse_part2[...]]/feed/node
+        // format: 'storage dir name'/partition_#/dataverse_part1[^dataverse_part2[...]]/feed/node
         File f = new File(storagePartitionPath + File.separator + relPathFile + File.separator + nodeName);
         return StoragePathUtil.getFileSplitForClusterPartition(partition, f.getPath());
     }
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 a534954..5f7fdea 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
@@ -1751,6 +1751,9 @@
         int totalLengthUTF8 = 0;
         for (String dvNamePart : dataverseName.getParts()) {
             validateDatabaseObjectNameImpl(dvNamePart, sourceLoc);
+            if (totalLengthUTF8 == 0 && StoragePathUtil.DATAVERSE_CONTINUATION_MARKER == dvNamePart.codePointAt(0)) {
+                throw new AsterixException(ErrorCode.INVALID_DATABASE_OBJECT_NAME, sourceLoc, dvNamePart);
+            }
             totalLengthUTF8 += dvNamePart.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).length;
         }
         if (totalLengthUTF8 > MetadataConstants.DATAVERSE_NAME_TOTAL_LENGTH_LIMIT_UTF8) {