I would also like to be able to use some special characters like -, /, *, ! ...
With the limitation of only allowing a name to be used once, I would at least allow periods ".".
If I have to have all totally unique names, names like LivingRoom.SideTable.Lamp and FamilyRoom.SideTable.Lamp and MasterBedroom.SideTable.Lamp come to mind.
FWIW My experience with Alexa and Homeseer is; each name must be unique. So if you plan on going to AI voice control in the future, I would avoid special characters, and I don't know if Alexa would understand " Alexa turn on bedroom dot table dot lamp".
Don't know how a future Alexa/X10 mashup will work, but Homeseer allows you to associate a location with a device name, but these are separate in the database, and Alexa only gets the device name from the Homeseer server, not the associated location. Just trying to help anyone thinking they will use Alexa with X10 WiFi.