diff --git a/server/database/dbOperations.ts b/server/database/dbOperations.ts
index 7a7f2fd1..7ca9bbae 100644
--- a/server/database/dbOperations.ts
+++ b/server/database/dbOperations.ts
@@ -129,8 +129,8 @@ export const buildViewConfigColumns = (
   };
 };
 
-// Unicode letters/digits/marks. sql.identifier quotes these.
-const VALID_COLUMN_NAME = /^[\p{L}_][\p{L}\p{N}\p{M}_]*$/u;
+// Unicode letters/digits/marks. sql.identifier quotes these (so leading digits are OK).
+const VALID_COLUMN_NAME = /^[\p{L}\p{N}_][\p{L}\p{N}\p{M}_]*$/u;
 
 /**
  * Normalizes and validates a projection list before a SQL read is built.