[Double quotes are for keywords][1], not identifiers. You either want single quotes here to indicate strings or backticks to quote column names. You can [recompile SQLite to force it to accept your syntax][2], but it's nonstandard SQL. Any SQL DB that accepts it has to do nonstandard magic to do the right thing in such cases, which can result in tears when its guess doesn't match your assumption of correct behavior. It's far better to just use standard SQL, with its strictly defined behaviors. [1]: https://www.sqlite.org/lang_keywords.html [2]: https://sqlite.org/quirks.html#dblquote