diff --git a/internal/cmd/group_flag.go b/internal/cmd/group_flag.go
index fa9f3526..4968ca83 100644
--- a/internal/cmd/group_flag.go
+++ b/internal/cmd/group_flag.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"regexp"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
@@ -19,6 +20,15 @@ import (
 	"github.com/tursodatabase/turso-cli/internal/turso"
 )
 
+var validTableName = regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$`)
+
+func validateCSVTableName(name string) error {
+	if !validTableName.MatchString(name) {
+		return fmt.Errorf("invalid --csv-table-name %q: must start with a letter or underscore and contain only letters, digits, and underscores", name)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 var groupBoolFlag bool
 
 func addGroupBoolFlag(cmd *cobra.Command, description string) {
@@ -80,6 +90,11 @@ func parseDBSeedFlags(client *turso.Client, isAWS bool, cipher string) (*turso.D
 	if csvTableNameFlag != "" && fromCSVFlag == "" {
 		return nil, errors.New("--from-csv must be used with --csv-table-name")
 	}
+	if csvTableNameFlag != "" {
+		if err := validateCSVTableName(csvTableNameFlag); err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
+	}
 
 	if fromDBFlag != "" {
 		return &turso.DBSeed{Type: "database", Name: fromDBFlag, Timestamp: timestamp}, nil
@@ -482,7 +497,7 @@ func importCSVIntoSQLite(tempDB *os.File, csvFile, csvTableName string, separato
 	cmd.Stderr = stdErr
 
 	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("could not load csv into new database file: %w: %x", err, stdErr.Bytes())
+		return fmt.Errorf("could not load csv into new database file: %w: %s", err, stdErr.String())
 	}
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/internal/cmd/group_flag_test.go b/internal/cmd/group_flag_test.go
index 4dd207e7..84ad0416 100644
--- a/internal/cmd/group_flag_test.go
+++ b/internal/cmd/group_flag_test.go
@@ -45,6 +45,37 @@ func createTestDatabase(t *testing.T, sizeBytes int) string {
 	return dbPath
 }
 
+func TestValidateCSVTableName(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		name        string
+		input       string
+		wantErr     bool
+		errContains string
+	}{
+		{name: "simple name", input: "users", wantErr: false},
+		{name: "underscore prefix", input: "_table", wantErr: false},
+		{name: "with numbers", input: "table123", wantErr: false},
+		{name: "mixed valid", input: "my_table_2", wantErr: false},
+		{name: "hyphen rejected", input: "some-table", wantErr: true, errContains: "invalid --csv-table-name"},
+		{name: "starts with digit", input: "1table", wantErr: true, errContains: "invalid --csv-table-name"},
+		{name: "empty string", input: "", wantErr: true, errContains: "invalid --csv-table-name"},
+		{name: "space in name", input: "my table", wantErr: true, errContains: "invalid --csv-table-name"},
+		{name: "dot in name", input: "my.table", wantErr: true, errContains: "invalid --csv-table-name"},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			err := validateCSVTableName(tt.input)
+			if tt.wantErr {
+				require.Error(t, err)
+				require.Contains(t, err.Error(), tt.errContains)
+			} else {
+				require.NoError(t, err)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestRunQuickCheck(t *testing.T) {
 	if _, err := exec.LookPath("sqlite3"); err != nil {
 		t.Skip("sqlite3 not available, skipping test")