diff --git a/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20251107-160515.yaml b/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20251107-160515.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..66ec9588ded
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20251107-160515.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Fixes
+body: For metric names, fix bug allowing hyphens (not allowed in metricflow already), make validation throw ValidationErrors (not ParsingErrors), and add tests.
+time: 2025-11-07T16:05:15.946331-08:00
+custom:
+    Author: theyostalservice
+    Issue: n/a
diff --git a/core/dbt/contracts/graph/unparsed.py b/core/dbt/contracts/graph/unparsed.py
index 9171a56b2ef..6c1a13c43c9 100644
--- a/core/dbt/contracts/graph/unparsed.py
+++ b/core/dbt/contracts/graph/unparsed.py
@@ -638,11 +638,11 @@ def validate(cls, data):
                 errors.append("cannot contain more than 250 characters")
             if not (re.match(r"^[A-Za-z]", data["name"])):
                 errors.append("must begin with a letter")
-            if not (re.match(r"[\w-]+$", data["name"])):
+            if not (re.match(r"[\w]+$", data["name"])):
                 errors.append("must contain only letters, numbers and underscores")
 
             if errors:
-                raise ParsingError(
+                raise ValidationError(
                     f"The metric name '{data['name']}' is invalid.  It {', '.join(e for e in errors)}"
                 )
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/contracts/graph/test_unparsed.py b/tests/unit/contracts/graph/test_unparsed.py
index 336a72431d9..401a09a0ca1 100644
--- a/tests/unit/contracts/graph/test_unparsed.py
+++ b/tests/unit/contracts/graph/test_unparsed.py
@@ -933,6 +933,41 @@ def test_bad_tags(self):
         tst["tags"] = [123]
         self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
 
+    def test_bad_metric_name_with_spaces(self):
+        tst = self.get_ok_dict()
+        tst["name"] = "metric name with spaces"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+    def test_bad_metric_name_too_long(self):
+        tst = self.get_ok_dict()
+        tst["name"] = "a" * 251
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+    def test_bad_metric_name_does_not_start_with_letter(self):
+        tst = self.get_ok_dict()
+        tst["name"] = "123metric"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+        tst["name"] = "_metric"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+    def test_bad_metric_name_contains_special_characters(self):
+        tst = self.get_ok_dict()
+        tst["name"] = "metric!name"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+        tst["name"] = "metric@name"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+        tst["name"] = "metric#name"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+        tst["name"] = "metric$name"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
+        tst["name"] = "metric-name"
+        self.assert_fails_validation(tst)
+
 
 class TestUnparsedVersion(ContractTestCase):
     ContractType = UnparsedVersion