diff --git a/kaldi_data_generator.py b/kaldi_data_generator.py
index 98f7420ddca81ac72f7e26d5e69f62a5e3ff33be..01f5e2fb13221e19d52c47b378ddec49421949da 100644
--- a/kaldi_data_generator.py
+++ b/kaldi_data_generator.py
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ def create_parser():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
         description="Script to generate Kaldi training data from annotations from Arkindex",
         formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
-    parser.add_argument('-n', '--dataset_name', type=str, required=True,
+    parser.add_argument('-n', '--dataset_name', type=str,
                         help='Name of the dataset being created for kaldi '
                              '(useful for distinguishing different datasets when in Lines or Transcriptions directory)')
     parser.add_argument('-o', '--out_dir', type=str, required=True,
@@ -337,7 +337,11 @@ def create_parser():
 
 
 def main():
-    args = create_parser().parse_args()
+    parser = create_parser()
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    if not args.dataset_name and not args.split_only:
+        parser.error("--dataset_name must be specified (unless --split-only)")
 
     logger.info(f"ARGS {args} \n")