diff --git a/.changeset/little-trains-film.md b/.changeset/little-trains-film.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ee3369fa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/little-trains-film.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"myst-frontmatter": minor
+---
+
+Make `name`, `display_name` soft-required fields for kernelspec
diff --git a/packages/myst-execute/src/execute.ts b/packages/myst-execute/src/execute.ts
index 7b8078d7b..d0b66571f 100644
--- a/packages/myst-execute/src/execute.ts
+++ b/packages/myst-execute/src/execute.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { select, selectAll } from 'unist-util-select';
 import type { Logger } from 'myst-cli-utils';
-import type { PageFrontmatter } from 'myst-frontmatter';
+import type { PageFrontmatter, KernelSpec } from 'myst-frontmatter';
 import type { Kernel, KernelMessage, Session, SessionManager } from '@jupyterlab/services';
 import type { Code, InlineExpression } from 'myst-spec-ext';
 import type { IOutput } from '@jupyterlab/nbformat';
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ async function evaluateExpression(kernel: Kernel.IKernelConnection, expr: string
  *
  * @param nodes array of executable nodes
  */
-function buildCacheKey(nodes: (ICellBlock | InlineExpression)[]): string {
+function buildCacheKey(kernelSpec: KernelSpec, nodes: (ICellBlock | InlineExpression)[]): string {
   // Build an array of hashable items from an array of nodes
   const hashableItems: {
     kind: string;
@@ -129,9 +129,12 @@ function buildCacheKey(nodes: (ICellBlock | InlineExpression)[]): string {
       });
     }
   }
-  // Serialize the array into JSON, and compute the hash
-  const hashableString = JSON.stringify(hashableItems);
-  return createHash('md5').update(hashableString).digest('hex');
+
+  // Build a hash from notebook state
+  return createHash('md5')
+    .update(kernelSpec.name)
+    .update(JSON.stringify(hashableItems))
+    .digest('hex');
 }
 
 type ICellBlockOutput = GenericNode & {
@@ -281,6 +284,15 @@ export type Options = {
  */
 export async function kernelExecutionTransform(tree: GenericParent, vfile: VFile, opts: Options) {
   const log = opts.log ?? console;
+
+  // We need the kernelspec to proceed
+  if (opts.frontmatter.kernelspec === undefined) {
+    return fileError(
+      vfile,
+      `Notebook does not declare the necessary 'kernelspec' frontmatter key required for execution`,
+    );
+  }
+
   // Pull out code-like nodes
   const executableNodes = selectAll(`block[kind=${NotebookCell.code}],inlineExpression`, tree) as (
     | ICellBlock
@@ -293,7 +305,7 @@ export async function kernelExecutionTransform(tree: GenericParent, vfile: VFile
   }
 
   // See if we already cached this execution
-  const cacheKey = buildCacheKey(executableNodes);
+  const cacheKey = buildCacheKey(opts.frontmatter.kernelspec, executableNodes);
   let cachedResults: (IExpressionResult | IOutput[])[] | undefined = opts.cache.get(cacheKey);
 
   // Do we need to re-execute notebook?
@@ -318,7 +330,7 @@ export async function kernelExecutionTransform(tree: GenericParent, vfile: VFile
         type: 'notebook',
         name: path.basename(vfile.path),
         kernel: {
-          name: opts.frontmatter?.kernelspec?.name ?? 'python3',
+          name: opts.frontmatter.kernelspec.name,
         },
       };
       await sessionManager
diff --git a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/kernelspec.yml b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/kernelspec.yml
index 48f08f6de..aa81f53be 100644
--- a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/kernelspec.yml
+++ b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/kernelspec.yml
@@ -1,16 +1,23 @@
 title: Kernel Spec
 cases:
-  - title: empty object returns self
+  - title: empty object has defaults
     raw:
       kernelspec: {}
     normalized:
-      kernelspec: {}
+      kernelspec:
+        name: python3
+        display_name: python3 Kernel
+    warnings: 2
   - title: extra keys removed
     raw:
       kernelspec:
         extra: ''
+        name: python3
+        display_name: Python 3
     normalized:
-      kernelspec: {}
+      kernelspec:
+        name: python3
+        display_name: Python 3
     warnings: 1
   - title: full object returns self
     raw:
diff --git a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/types.ts b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/types.ts
index d3fd23666..2927bbe94 100644
--- a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/types.ts
+++ b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/types.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 export type KernelSpec = {
-  name?: string;
+  name: string;
+  display_name: string;
   language?: string;
-  display_name?: string;
   argv?: string[];
   env?: Record<string, any>;
 };
diff --git a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/validators.ts b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/validators.ts
index a02d638b6..045cdef45 100644
--- a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/validators.ts
+++ b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/kernelspec/validators.ts
@@ -6,10 +6,11 @@ import {
   validateObject,
   validateObjectKeys,
   validateString,
+  validationWarning,
 } from 'simple-validators';
 import type { KernelSpec } from './types.js';
 
-const KERNELSPEC_KEYS = ['name', 'language', 'display_name', 'argv', 'env'];
+const KERNELSPEC_KEYS = ['name', 'display_name', 'language', 'argv', 'env'];
 
 /**
  * Validate KernelSpec object
@@ -17,18 +18,40 @@ const KERNELSPEC_KEYS = ['name', 'language', 'display_name', 'argv', 'env'];
 export function validateKernelSpec(input: any, opts: ValidationOptions) {
   const value = validateObjectKeys(input, { optional: KERNELSPEC_KEYS }, opts);
   if (value === undefined) return undefined;
-  const output: KernelSpec = {};
+
+  // name is a required member of KernelSpec, but hasn't previously been required
+  let name: string;
   if (defined(value.name)) {
-    output.name = validateString(value.name, incrementOptions('name', opts));
-  }
-  if (defined(value.language)) {
-    output.language = validateString(value.language, incrementOptions('language', opts));
+    const validatedName = validateString(value.name, incrementOptions('name', opts));
+    if (validatedName === undefined) return undefined;
+    name = validatedName;
+  } else {
+    name = 'python3';
+    validationWarning(`"name" key is required; using '${name}' as placeholder value`, opts);
   }
+
+  // The same logic for `display_name` applies. It is usually ignored by frontends
+  // in favour of the actual kernel information, so we assign an arbitrary value for now.
+  // Note that jupytext complains if its missing, so we should push people to set it
+  let displayName: string;
   if (defined(value.display_name)) {
-    output.display_name = validateString(
+    const validatedDisplayName = validateString(
       value.display_name,
       incrementOptions('display_name', opts),
     );
+    if (validatedDisplayName === undefined) return undefined;
+    displayName = validatedDisplayName;
+  } else {
+    displayName = `${name} Kernel`;
+    validationWarning(
+      `"display_name" key is required; using '${displayName}' as placeholder value`,
+      opts,
+    );
+  }
+
+  const output: KernelSpec = { name, display_name: displayName };
+  if (defined(value.language)) {
+    output.language = validateString(value.language, incrementOptions('language', opts));
   }
   if (defined(value.env)) {
     output.env = validateObject(value.env, incrementOptions('env', opts));
diff --git a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/page/page.yml b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/page/page.yml
index eeeb9f441..9badc2dd6 100644
--- a/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/page/page.yml
+++ b/packages/myst-frontmatter/src/page/page.yml
@@ -41,7 +41,9 @@ cases:
       subtitle: sub
       short_title: short
       date: '14 Dec 2021'
-      kernelspec: {}
+      kernelspec: 
+        name: python3
+        display_name: Python 3
       jupytext: {}
       keywords:
         - example
@@ -85,7 +87,9 @@ cases:
       subtitle: sub
       short_title: short
       date: '2021-12-14'
-      kernelspec: {}
+      kernelspec: 
+        name: python3
+        display_name: Python 3
       jupytext: {}
       keywords:
         - example