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Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from [Understanding DBF Essentials][1]

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

I tried to export fields names with colon at the beginning, middle and end with GDAL. All colons where changed to underline, like:

:Field to _Field

Fie:ld to Fie_ld

Field: to Field_ [1]: http://www.okstate.edu/sas/v7/sashtml/books/acespc/z0214453.htm

Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from Understanding DBF Essentials

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from [Understanding DBF Essentials][1]

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

EDIT

I tried to export fields names with colon at the beginning, middle and end with GDAL. All colons where changed to underline, like:

:Field to _Field

Fie:ld to Fie_ld

Field: to Field_ [1]: http://www.okstate.edu/sas/v7/sashtml/books/acespc/z0214453.htm

Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from [Understanding DBF Essentials][1]

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

I tried to export fields names with colon at the beginning, middle and end with GDAL. All colons where changed to underline, like:

:Field to _Field

Fie:ld to Fie_ld

Field: to Field_ [1]: http://www.okstate.edu/sas/v7/sashtml/books/acespc/z0214453.htm

Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from Understanding DBF Essentials

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

Field name restrictions inside a shapefile are determined by dBase limitations. There are four single rules:

1. Up to 10 character max.
2. First character in field name must start with a letter.
3. Field names are unique.
4. And, from [Understanding DBF Essentials][1]

(...) they can contain any combination of the letters A through Z, the digits 0 through 9, the colon (:) (in dBASE II field names only), and the underscore (_).

ESRI Shapefile works with dBase III+.

EDIT

I tried to export fields names with colon at the beginning, middle and end with GDAL. All colons where changed to underline, like:

:Field to _Field

Fie:ld to Fie_ld

Field: to Field_ [1]: http://www.okstate.edu/sas/v7/sashtml/books/acespc/z0214453.htm