diff --git a/crates/fayalite/src/sim/vcd.rs b/crates/fayalite/src/sim/vcd.rs
index 8b5a58c..0779b5c 100644
--- a/crates/fayalite/src/sim/vcd.rs
+++ b/crates/fayalite/src/sim/vcd.rs
@@ -235,6 +235,17 @@ fn write_escaped<W: io::Write>(writer: &mut W, value: impl Display) -> io::Resul
     write!(Wrapper(writer), "{value}")
 }
 
+fn is_unescaped_verilog_identifier(ident: &str) -> bool {
+    // we only allow ascii, so we can just check bytes
+    let Some((&first, rest)) = ident.as_bytes().split_first() else {
+        return false; // empty string is not an identifier
+    };
+    (first.is_ascii_alphabetic() || first == b'_')
+        && rest
+            .iter()
+            .all(|&ch| ch.is_ascii_alphanumeric() || ch == b'_' || ch == b'$')
+}
+
 fn write_vcd_var<W: io::Write>(
     writer: &mut W,
     var_type: &str,
@@ -244,7 +255,12 @@ fn write_vcd_var<W: io::Write>(
 ) -> io::Result<()> {
     write!(writer, "$var {var_type} {size} ")?;
     write_scalar_id(writer, id)?;
-    writeln!(writer, " {name} $end")
+    writer.write_all(b" ")?;
+    if !is_unescaped_verilog_identifier(name) {
+        writer.write_all(b"\\")?;
+    }
+    write_escaped(writer, name)?;
+    writer.write_all(b" $end\n")
 }
 
 impl WriteTrace for TraceUInt {