This is my code
$firstname = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('firstname', array('id' => 'firstname'));
$firstname->setLabel('Firstname')
->addError('Your firstname.')
->addFilter('StringTrim')
->addFilter('StripTags')
->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(1))
->setRequired(true);
$form->addElement($firstname);
The addValidator is firing immediately once the page is loaded, showing the error message.