diff --git a/mealie/schema/cookbook/cookbook.py b/mealie/schema/cookbook/cookbook.py
index 00ef3805e96..d7500566179 100644
--- a/mealie/schema/cookbook/cookbook.py
+++ b/mealie/schema/cookbook/cookbook.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from typing import Annotated
 
 from pydantic import UUID4, ConfigDict, Field, field_validator
+from slugify import slugify
 from sqlalchemy.orm import joinedload
 from sqlalchemy.orm.interfaces import LoaderOption
 
@@ -29,6 +30,18 @@ class CreateCookBook(MealieModel):
     def validate_public(public: bool | None) -> bool:
         return False if public is None else public
 
+    @field_validator("name")
+    def validate_name(name: str) -> str:
+        name = name.strip()
+
+        # we calculate the slug later leveraging the database,
+        # but we still need to validate the name can be slugified
+        possible_slug = slugify(name)
+        if not (name and possible_slug):
+            raise ValueError("Name cannot be empty")
+
+        return name
+
 
 class SaveCookBook(CreateCookBook):
     group_id: UUID4
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/user_household_tests/test_group_cookbooks.py b/tests/integration_tests/user_household_tests/test_group_cookbooks.py
index 11c2b64b1e2..7fafe11fff1 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/user_household_tests/test_group_cookbooks.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/user_household_tests/test_group_cookbooks.py
@@ -62,6 +62,22 @@ def test_create_cookbook(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: TestUser):
     assert response.status_code == 201
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("name_input", ["", " ", "@"])
+def test_create_cookbook_bad_name(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: TestUser, name_input: str):
+    data = {
+        "name": name_input,
+        "slug": name_input,
+        "description": "",
+        "position": 0,
+        "categories": [],
+        "group_id": str(unique_user.group_id),
+        "household_id": str(unique_user.household_id),
+    }
+
+    response = api_client.post(api_routes.households_cookbooks, json=data, headers=unique_user.token)
+    assert response.status_code == 422
+
+
 def test_read_cookbook(api_client: TestClient, unique_user: TestUser, cookbooks: list[TestCookbook]):
     sample = random.choice(cookbooks)
     response = api_client.get(api_routes.households_cookbooks_item_id(sample.id), headers=unique_user.token)