diff --git a/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/Cargo.toml b/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/Cargo.toml
index 81e42dd817cda..7299f5ef2e0bd 100644
--- a/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -64,4 +64,4 @@ name = "build_testsuite"
 harness = false
 
 [features]
-tiered-gas = [ "move-vm-test-utils/tiered-gas" ]
+tiered-gas = ["move-vm-test-utils/tiered-gas"]
diff --git a/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/src/base/new.rs b/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/src/base/new.rs
index 339d8673fd7de..a0e5e3baa1487 100644
--- a/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/src/base/new.rs
+++ b/external-crates/move/crates/move-cli/src/base/new.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 // Copyright (c) The Move Contributors
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 
+use anyhow::anyhow;
 use clap::*;
+use move_core_types::identifier::Identifier;
 use move_package::source_package::layout::SourcePackageLayout;
 use std::{
     fmt::Display,
@@ -47,6 +49,14 @@ impl New {
     ) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
         // TODO warn on build config flags
         let Self { name } = self;
+
+        if !Identifier::is_valid(&name) {
+            return Err(anyhow!(
+                "Invalid package name, please use lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores, \
+                 should start with a lowercase letter"
+            ));
+        }
+
         let p: PathBuf;
         let path: &Path = match path {
             Some(path) => {