This error message occurs when the jobname specified in the -N option is > 15 characters long OR if the first character in the name is non-alphabetic. From the qsub man page: -N name Declares a name for the job. The name specified may be up to and including 15 characters in length. It must consist of printable, non white space characters with the first character alphabetic. If your batch script does not specify the -N option, the name of the batch script is used as the jobname, so the above limitations will apply for the batch script name in this case.