diff --git a/tests/v1/metrics/test_ray_metrics.py b/tests/v1/metrics/test_ray_metrics.py
index 92f6c6f0e89cd..0c9f83f049e4d 100644
--- a/tests/v1/metrics/test_ray_metrics.py
+++ b/tests/v1/metrics/test_ray_metrics.py
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@ import ray
 from vllm.config import ModelDType
 from vllm.sampling_params import SamplingParams
 from vllm.v1.engine.async_llm import AsyncEngineArgs, AsyncLLM
-from vllm.v1.metrics.ray_wrappers import RayPrometheusStatLogger
+from vllm.v1.metrics.ray_wrappers import (RayPrometheusMetric,
+                                          RayPrometheusStatLogger)
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope="function", autouse=True)
@@ -65,3 +66,39 @@ def test_engine_log_metrics_ray(
     # Create the actor and call the async method
     actor = EngineTestActor.remote()  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
     ray.get(actor.run.remote())
+
+
+def test_sanitized_opentelemetry_name():
+    """Test the metric name sanitization logic for Ray."""
+
+    # Only a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _, test valid characters are preserved
+    valid_name = "valid_metric_123_abcDEF"
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(
+        valid_name) == valid_name
+
+    # Test dash, dot, are replaced
+    name_with_dash_dot = "metric-name.test"
+    expected = "metric_name_test"
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(
+        name_with_dash_dot) == expected
+
+    # Test colon is replaced with underscore
+    name_with_colon = "metric:name"
+    expected = "metric_name"
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(
+        name_with_colon) == expected
+
+    # Test multiple invalid characters are replaced
+    name_with_invalid = "metric:name@with#special%chars"
+    expected = "metric_name_with_special_chars"
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(
+        name_with_invalid) == expected
+
+    # Test mixed valid and invalid characters
+    complex_name = "vllm:engine_stats/time.latency_ms-99p"
+    expected = "vllm_engine_stats_time_latency_ms_99p"
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(
+        complex_name) == expected
+
+    # Test empty string
+    assert RayPrometheusMetric._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name("") == ""
diff --git a/vllm/v1/metrics/ray_wrappers.py b/vllm/v1/metrics/ray_wrappers.py
index ae8f9447e9c8b..6091857538609 100644
--- a/vllm/v1/metrics/ray_wrappers.py
+++ b/vllm/v1/metrics/ray_wrappers.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ try:
     from ray.util.metrics import Metric
 except ImportError:
     ray_metrics = None
+import regex as re
 
 
 class RayPrometheusMetric:
@@ -42,6 +43,21 @@ class RayPrometheusMetric:
 
         return self
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(name: str) -> str:
+        """
+        For compatibility with Ray + OpenTelemetry, the metric name must be 
+        sanitized. In particular, this replaces disallowed character (e.g., ':')
+        with '_' in the metric name.
+        Allowed characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _
+
+        # ruff: noqa: E501
+        Ref: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-cpp/blob/main/sdk/src/metrics/instrument_metadata_validator.cc#L22-L23
+        Ref: https://github.com/ray-project/ray/blob/master/src/ray/stats/metric.cc#L107
+        """
+
+        return re.sub(r"[^a-zA-Z0-9_]", "_", name)
+
 
 class RayGaugeWrapper(RayPrometheusMetric):
     """Wraps around ray.util.metrics.Gauge to provide same API as
@@ -58,6 +74,7 @@ class RayGaugeWrapper(RayPrometheusMetric):
         # implemented at the observability layer (Prometheus/Grafana).
         del multiprocess_mode
         labelnames_tuple = tuple(labelnames) if labelnames else None
+        name = self._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(name)
         self.metric = ray_metrics.Gauge(name=name,
                                         description=documentation,
                                         tag_keys=labelnames_tuple)
@@ -79,6 +96,7 @@ class RayCounterWrapper(RayPrometheusMetric):
                  documentation: Optional[str] = "",
                  labelnames: Optional[list[str]] = None):
         labelnames_tuple = tuple(labelnames) if labelnames else None
+        name = self._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(name)
         self.metric = ray_metrics.Counter(name=name,
                                           description=documentation,
                                           tag_keys=labelnames_tuple)
@@ -99,6 +117,7 @@ class RayHistogramWrapper(RayPrometheusMetric):
                  labelnames: Optional[list[str]] = None,
                  buckets: Optional[list[float]] = None):
         labelnames_tuple = tuple(labelnames) if labelnames else None
+        name = self._get_sanitized_opentelemetry_name(name)
         boundaries = buckets if buckets else []
         self.metric = ray_metrics.Histogram(name=name,
                                             description=documentation,