diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 135d8ec85..86d52b9cb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 __pycache__
+*.swp
 .vscode
 .history
 .coverage
diff --git a/brownie/exceptions.py b/brownie/exceptions.py
index fc8d953e6..aa7452b55 100644
--- a/brownie/exceptions.py
+++ b/brownie/exceptions.py
@@ -169,6 +169,10 @@ class ProjectNotFound(Exception):
     pass
 
 
+class BadProjectName(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
 class CompilerError(Exception):
     def __init__(self, e: Type[psutil.Popen], compiler: str = "Compiler") -> None:
         self.compiler = compiler
diff --git a/brownie/project/main.py b/brownie/project/main.py
index cf9f6b3ed..377ff6941 100644
--- a/brownie/project/main.py
+++ b/brownie/project/main.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 )
 from brownie._expansion import expand_posix_vars
 from brownie.exceptions import (
+    BadProjectName,
     BrownieEnvironmentWarning,
     InvalidPackage,
     PragmaError,
@@ -735,7 +736,9 @@ def load(project_path: Union[Path, str, None] = None, name: Optional[str] = None
         name = project_path.name
         if not name.lower().endswith("project"):
             name += " project"
-        name = "".join(i for i in name.title() if i.isalpha())
+        if not name[0].isalpha():
+            raise BadProjectName("Project must start with an alphabetic character")
+        name = "".join(i for i in name.title() if i.isalnum())
     if next((True for i in _loaded_projects if i._name == name), False):
         raise ProjectAlreadyLoaded("There is already a project loaded with this name")