diff --git a/app/kubernetes/views/applications/create/createApplication.html b/app/kubernetes/views/applications/create/createApplication.html
index 57315ce2f..540c450d7 100644
--- a/app/kubernetes/views/applications/create/createApplication.html
+++ b/app/kubernetes/views/applications/create/createApplication.html
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@
                         class="form-control"
                         ng-model="envVar.Name"
                         ng-change="ctrl.onChangeEnvironmentName($index)"
+                        ng-pattern="/^[a-zA-Z]([-_a-zA-Z0-9]*[a-zA-Z0-9])?$/"
                         placeholder="foo"
                         required
                       />
@@ -158,6 +159,10 @@
                     >
                       <ng-messages for="kubernetesApplicationCreationForm['environment_variable_name_' + $index].$error">
                         <p ng-message="required"><i class="fa fa-exclamation-triangle" aria-hidden="true"></i> Environment variable name is required.</p>
+                        <p ng-message="pattern"
+                          ><i class="fa fa-exclamation-triangle" aria-hidden="true"></i> This field must consist alphanumeric characters, '-' or '_', start with an alphabetic
+                          character, and end with an alphanumeric character (e.g. 'my-var', or 'MY_VAR123').</p
+                        >
                       </ng-messages>
                       <p ng-if="ctrl.state.duplicateEnvironmentVariables[$index] !== undefined"
                         ><i class="fa fa-exclamation-triangle" aria-hidden="true"></i> This environment variable is already defined.</p