diff --git a/app/models/item.rb b/app/models/item.rb
index 532cfe85..ab1a8625 100644
--- a/app/models/item.rb
+++ b/app/models/item.rb
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ class Item
   key :position, Integer, :required => true
   key :is_published, Boolean, :required => true, :default => true, :index => true
  
+  validates_format_of :name, :with => /^[a-zA-Z-_]+$/
   belongs_to :parent, :class_name => "Item", :foreign_key => :parent_id
   many :children, :class_name => "Item", :foreign_key => :parent_id
   
diff --git a/lib/reroute_middleware.rb b/lib/reroute_middleware.rb
index 7e39dd4a..29dc89c4 100644
--- a/lib/reroute_middleware.rb
+++ b/lib/reroute_middleware.rb
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ class RerouteMiddleware
     #Rails.logger.debug env.to_yaml
     return @app.call(env) if env['REQUEST_URI'] =~ /^\/admin/
       
-    env['REQUEST_URI'] =~ /^\/([\w]*)/
+    env['REQUEST_URI'] =~ /^\/([a-zA-Z-_]*)/
     parsed_entry_name = $1
    
     entry = Item.find_by_name( parsed_entry_name )