diff --git a/mysql-dbadm.c b/mysql-dbadm.c
index 5a19fe1..1efe856 100644
--- a/mysql-dbadm.c
+++ b/mysql-dbadm.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * @(#) $Header: /tmp/cvs/mysql-admutils/mysql-dbadm.c,v 1.13 2005-06-27 10:13:01 knuta Exp $
+ * @(#) $Header: /tmp/cvs/mysql-admutils/mysql-dbadm.c,v 1.14 2006-07-05 09:00:52 andersmo Exp $
  *
  * mysql-dbadm.c
  *
@@ -18,6 +18,18 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include "mysql-admutils.h"
 
+/* New database names may only use these characters in their identifier */
+const char dbname_validchars[] =
+	"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789_-";
+
+/* Returns true if dbname contains only characters in dbname_validchars. */
+int dbname_isclean(char* dbname) {
+	int reallen, cleanlen;
+	reallen = strlen(dbname);
+	cleanlen = strspn(dbname, dbname_validchars);
+	return (reallen == cleanlen);
+}
+
 char *
 strchr_whitespace(const char *s)
 {
@@ -500,7 +512,13 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	  switch (command) {
 	    case c_create:
-	      create(&mysql, db);
+	      // We only check newly created databases. Many old ("unclean") databases are still in use.
+	      if(dbname_isclean(db)) {
+	        create(&mysql, db);
+	      } else {
+	        dberror(NULL, "Database name '%s' contains invalid characters.\n"
+	                      "Only A-Z, a-z, 0-9, _ (underscore) and - (dash) permitted. Skipping.", db);
+	      }
 	      break;
 	    case c_drop:
 	      drop(&mysql, db);