# Special characters in the tag name

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/special-characters-in-the-tag-name/12403>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [November 24, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/special-characters-in-the-tag-name/12403 "2016-11-24T21:17:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sg7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@sg7](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/sg7)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/special-characters-in-the-tag-name/12403/1 "2016-11-24T21:17:36Z")

</div>

Hi,

The manual says:  
“There are many special characters that are available to use when naming tags, but we recommend using only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) and spaces”  
See:: [docs.inductiveautomation.com:84 … +Organized](https://docs.inductiveautomation.com:8443/display/DOC78/Keeping+Tags+Organized)

Actually, I have only found ONE special character which Ignition Designer accepts: Colon   
(besides mentioned in documentation Left and Right parenthesis).

How safe is to use Colon in the name tag?  
Is there any other special character which can be used in a tag name?

Thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adam.morales](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/adam.morales/32/3405_2.png) [@adam.morales](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/adam.morales)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/special-characters-in-the-tag-name/12403/2 "2016-12-17T00:55:10Z")

</div>

Tag names can contain letters, digits, underscore, space, parentheses, single quotes, dashes, or colons. A tag name cannot start with a special character, except for an underscore, but we do not recommend that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aamjad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@aamjad](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/aamjad)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/special-characters-in-the-tag-name/12403/3 "2021-03-18T11:57:24Z")

</div>

Hi Adam,

Wondering if that also applies to alarm names?.  
Thanks