diff --git a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/obj.go b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/obj.go
index e3c8e07ffa7..5630e12ace7 100644
--- a/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/obj.go
+++ b/src/cmd/compile/internal/gc/obj.go
@@ -273,10 +273,6 @@ func dumpglobls() {
 }
 
 // addGCLocals adds gcargs, gclocals, gcregs, and stack object symbols to Ctxt.Data.
-// It takes care not to add any duplicates.
-// Though the object file format handles duplicates efficiently,
-// storing only a single copy of the data,
-// failure to remove these duplicates adds a few percent to object file size.
 //
 // This is done during the sequential phase after compilation, since
 // global symbols can't be declared during parallel compilation.
diff --git a/src/cmd/internal/obj/objfile.go b/src/cmd/internal/obj/objfile.go
index b6cfec3b3e6..3c72f543ccb 100644
--- a/src/cmd/internal/obj/objfile.go
+++ b/src/cmd/internal/obj/objfile.go
@@ -25,12 +25,6 @@ type objWriter struct {
 	// Temporary buffer for zigzag int writing.
 	varintbuf [10]uint8
 
-	// Provide the index of a symbol reference by symbol name.
-	// One map for versioned symbols and one for unversioned symbols.
-	// Used for deduplicating the symbol reference list.
-	refIdx  map[string]int
-	vrefIdx map[string]int
-
 	// Number of objects written of each type.
 	nRefs     int
 	nData     int
@@ -79,10 +73,8 @@ func (w *objWriter) writeLengths() {
 
 func newObjWriter(ctxt *Link, b *bufio.Writer) *objWriter {
 	return &objWriter{
-		ctxt:    ctxt,
-		wr:      b,
-		vrefIdx: make(map[string]int),
-		refIdx:  make(map[string]int),
+		ctxt: ctxt,
+		wr:   b,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -157,17 +149,6 @@ func (w *objWriter) writeRef(s *LSym, isPath bool) {
 	if s == nil || s.RefIdx != 0 {
 		return
 	}
-	var m map[string]int
-	if !s.Static() {
-		m = w.refIdx
-	} else {
-		m = w.vrefIdx
-	}
-
-	if idx := m[s.Name]; idx != 0 {
-		s.RefIdx = idx
-		return
-	}
 	w.wr.WriteByte(symPrefix)
 	if isPath {
 		w.writeString(filepath.ToSlash(s.Name))
@@ -178,7 +159,6 @@ func (w *objWriter) writeRef(s *LSym, isPath bool) {
 	w.writeBool(s.Static())
 	w.nRefs++
 	s.RefIdx = w.nRefs
-	m[s.Name] = w.nRefs
 }
 
 func (w *objWriter) writeRefs(s *LSym) {