 <p>The dot added to the name is used by the <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ASPNETWireFormatForModelBindingToArraysListsCollectionsDictionaries.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">default model binder</a> when the form is submitted in order to correctly populate the model. As far as validation is concerned you could set it like this:</p> <pre><code>$("#myForm").validate({ rules: { 'Box.Name': { required: true } }, messages: { 'Box.Name': { required: 'some error message' } } }); </code></pre>