diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b68969d..4edb844 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "cross-spawn-promise": "^0.10.1",
     "debug": "^4.1.1",
-    "electron-installer-common": "^0.4.2",
+    "electron-installer-common": "^0.5.0",
     "fs-extra": "^7.0.1",
     "js-yaml": "^3.10.0",
     "lodash.filter": "^4.6.0",
diff --git a/src/cli.js b/src/cli.js
index d156ded..a3326ab 100755
--- a/src/cli.js
+++ b/src/cli.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
 'use strict'
 /*
-Copyright 2017 Mark Lee and contributors
+Copyright 2017, 2018, 2019 Mark Lee and contributors
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@ function parseArgs () {
     describe: 'The absolute path to snapcraft. Defaults to searching in PATH.',
     string: true
   }).option('name', {
-    describe: 'name of the snap package (defaults to name in package.json)',
+    describe: 'A maximum 30 character name of the snap package (defaults to name in package.json)',
     string: true
   }).option('app-version', {
     describe: 'version of the snap package (defaults to version in package.json)',
     string: true
   }).option('summary', {
-    describe: 'A 78 character long summary for the snap (defaults to description in package.json)',
+    describe: 'A maximum 78 character long summary for the snap (defaults to description in package.json)',
     string: true
   }).option('description', {
     describe: 'The longer description for the snap',
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 51d1701..b3b9989 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 'use strict'
 /*
-Copyright 2017 Mark Lee and contributors
+Copyright 2017, 2018, 2019 Mark Lee and contributors
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 limitations under the License.
 */
 
+const common = require('electron-installer-common')
 const debug = require('debug')('electron-installer-snap:index')
 const fs = require('fs-extra')
 const nodeify = require('nodeify')
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ class SnapCreator {
 
   setOptions (defaultArgs, userSupplied) {
     this.config = Object.assign(defaultArgs, userSupplied)
+    this.config.name = this.sanitizeName(this.config.name)
     this.snapcraft = new Snapcraft()
 
     const snapArch = this.snapcraft.translateArch(String(this.config.arch || process.arch))
@@ -57,6 +59,19 @@ class SnapCreator {
     return this.snapcraftOptions
   }
 
+  sanitizeName (name) {
+    if (name.length > 30) {
+      throw new Error(`The max length of the name is 30 characters, you have ${name.length}`)
+    }
+
+    const sanitized = common.sanitizeName(name.toLowerCase(), '-a-z0-9')
+    if (!/[a-z]/.test(sanitized)) {
+      throw new Error('The snap name needs to have at least one letter')
+    }
+
+    return sanitized
+  }
+
   runInTempSnapDir () {
     return tmp.dir({ prefix: 'electron-snap-', unsafeCleanup: !debug.enabled })
       .then(tmpdir => {
@@ -101,3 +116,4 @@ function createSnap (userSupplied) {
 }
 
 module.exports = nodeify(createSnap)
+module.exports.SnapCreator = SnapCreator
diff --git a/test/index.js b/test/index.js
index aba4979..94d0fac 100644
--- a/test/index.js
+++ b/test/index.js
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 'use strict'
 /*
-Copyright 2018 Mark Lee and contributors
+Copyright 2018, 2019 Mark Lee and contributors
 
 Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -29,6 +29,21 @@ test('packaged app not found', t => t.throwsAsync(snap({}), /Could not find, rea
 
 test('cannot find custom snapcraft', t => t.throwsAsync(snap({ src: path.join(__dirname, 'fixtures', 'app-with-asar'), snapcraft: '/foo/bar/non-existent' }), /Cannot locate \/foo\/bar\/non-existent in your system/))
 
+test('snap name is sanitized', t => {
+  const creator = new snap.SnapCreator()
+  t.is(creator.sanitizeName('My App'), 'my-app')
+})
+
+test('snap name is too long', t => {
+  const creator = new snap.SnapCreator()
+  t.throws(() => creator.sanitizeName('My super duper long application name'), /The max length of the name/)
+})
+
+test('snap name has no letters', t => {
+  const creator = new snap.SnapCreator()
+  t.throws(() => creator.sanitizeName('0-9'), /needs to have at least one letter/)
+})
+
 if (!process.env['FAST_TESTS_ONLY']) {
   test.serial('creates a snap', t => {
     let snapPath