diff --git a/libs/ardour/luabindings.cc b/libs/ardour/luabindings.cc
index ffbbba96c8..f5f33c14e2 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/luabindings.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/luabindings.cc
@@ -1127,6 +1127,7 @@ LuaBindings::common (lua_State* L)
 		.deriveWSPtrClass <Playlist, SessionObject> ("Playlist")
 		.addCast<AudioPlaylist> ("to_audioplaylist")
 		.addCast<MidiPlaylist> ("to_midiplaylist")
+		.addFunction ("set_name", &Playlist::set_name)
 		.addFunction ("region_by_id", &Playlist::region_by_id)
 		.addFunction ("data_type", &Playlist::data_type)
 		.addFunction ("n_regions", &Playlist::n_regions)
diff --git a/libs/ardour/playlist.cc b/libs/ardour/playlist.cc
index 57bc44806e..1242b6800a 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/playlist.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/playlist.cc
@@ -413,6 +413,10 @@ Playlist::set_name (const string& str)
 		return false;
 	}
 
+	if (_session.playlists()->by_name (str)) {
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	bool ret = SessionObject::set_name (str);
 	if (ret) {
 		_set_sort_id ();