diff --git a/collector/ethtool_linux.go b/collector/ethtool_linux.go
index 058462ce7b..f00ed639e2 100644
--- a/collector/ethtool_linux.go
+++ b/collector/ethtool_linux.go
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"regexp"
 	"sort"
+	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 
 	"github.com/go-kit/log"
@@ -39,8 +40,9 @@ import (
 var (
 	ethtoolIgnoredDevices  = kingpin.Flag("collector.ethtool.ignored-devices", "Regexp of net devices to ignore for ethtool collector.").Default("^$").String()
 	ethtoolIncludedMetrics = kingpin.Flag("collector.ethtool.metrics-include", "Regexp of ethtool stats to include.").Default(".*").String()
-	receivedRegex          = regexp.MustCompile(`_rx_`)
-	transmittedRegex       = regexp.MustCompile(`_tx_`)
+	metricNameRegex        = regexp.MustCompile(`_*[^0-9A-Za-z_]+_*`)
+	receivedRegex          = regexp.MustCompile(`(^|_)rx(_|$)`)
+	transmittedRegex       = regexp.MustCompile(`(^|_)tx(_|$)`)
 )
 
 type EthtoolStats interface {
@@ -123,6 +125,29 @@ func init() {
 	registerCollector("ethtool", defaultDisabled, NewEthtoolCollector)
 }
 
+// Sanitize the given metric name by replacing invalid characters by underscores.
+//
+// OpenMetrics and the Prometheus exposition format require the metric name
+// to consist only of alphanumericals and "_", ":" and they must not start
+// with digits. Since colons in MetricFamily are reserved to signal that the
+// MetricFamily is the result of a calculation or aggregation of a general
+// purpose monitoring system, colons will be replaced as well.
+//
+// Note: If not subsequently prepending a namespace and/or subsystem (e.g.,
+// with prometheus.BuildFQName), the caller must ensure that the supplied
+// metricName does not begin with a digit.
+func SanitizeMetricName(metricName string) string {
+	return metricNameRegex.ReplaceAllString(metricName, "_")
+}
+
+// Generate the fully-qualified metric name for the ethool metric.
+func buildEthtoolFQName(metric string) string {
+	metricName := strings.TrimLeft(strings.ToLower(SanitizeMetricName(metric)), "_")
+	metricName = receivedRegex.ReplaceAllString(metricName, "${1}received${2}")
+	metricName = transmittedRegex.ReplaceAllString(metricName, "${1}transmitted${2}")
+	return prometheus.BuildFQName(namespace, "ethtool", metricName)
+}
+
 // NewEthtoolCollector returns a new Collector exposing ethtool stats.
 func NewEthtoolCollector(logger log.Logger) (Collector, error) {
 	return makeEthtoolCollector(logger)
@@ -183,9 +208,7 @@ func (c *ethtoolCollector) Update(ch chan<- prometheus.Metric) error {
 				continue
 			}
 			val := stats[metric]
-			metricFQName := prometheus.BuildFQName(namespace, "ethtool", metric)
-			metricFQName = receivedRegex.ReplaceAllString(metricFQName, "_received_")
-			metricFQName = transmittedRegex.ReplaceAllString(metricFQName, "_transmitted_")
+			metricFQName := buildEthtoolFQName(metric)
 
 			// Check to see if this metric exists; if not then create it and store it in c.entries.
 			entry, exists := c.entries[metric]
diff --git a/collector/ethtool_linux_test.go b/collector/ethtool_linux_test.go
index f2a4e087e9..8a96c5e2a8 100644
--- a/collector/ethtool_linux_test.go
+++ b/collector/ethtool_linux_test.go
@@ -81,6 +81,41 @@ func NewEthtoolTestCollector(logger log.Logger) (Collector, error) {
 	return collector, nil
 }
 
+func TestSanitizeMetricName(t *testing.T) {
+	testcases := map[string]string{
+		"":                             "",
+		"rx_errors":                    "rx_errors",
+		"Queue[0] AllocFails":          "Queue_0_AllocFails",
+		"Tx LPI entry count":           "Tx_LPI_entry_count",
+		"port.VF_admin_queue_requests": "port_VF_admin_queue_requests",
+		"[3]: tx_bytes":                "_3_tx_bytes",
+	}
+
+	for metricName, expected := range testcases {
+		got := SanitizeMetricName(metricName)
+		if expected != got {
+			t.Errorf("Expected '%s' but got '%s'", expected, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestBuildEthtoolFQName(t *testing.T) {
+	testcases := map[string]string{
+		"rx_errors":                    "node_ethtool_received_errors",
+		"Queue[0] AllocFails":          "node_ethtool_queue_0_allocfails",
+		"Tx LPI entry count":           "node_ethtool_transmitted_lpi_entry_count",
+		"port.VF_admin_queue_requests": "node_ethtool_port_vf_admin_queue_requests",
+		"[3]: tx_bytes":                "node_ethtool_3_transmitted_bytes",
+	}
+
+	for metric, expected := range testcases {
+		got := buildEthtoolFQName(metric)
+		if expected != got {
+			t.Errorf("Expected '%s' but got '%s'", expected, got)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestEthtoolCollector(t *testing.T) {
 	testcases := []string{
 		prometheus.NewDesc("node_ethtool_align_errors", "Network interface align_errors", []string{"device"}, nil).String(),