diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/CommonDatabase.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/CommonDatabase.ts
index 67feb82fac..43eb66e9d7 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/CommonDatabase.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/CommonDatabase.ts
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ function serializeSpec(spec: Entity['spec']): DbEntitiesRow['spec'] {
 function toEntityRow(
   locationId: string | undefined,
   entity: Entity,
-  normalize: (value: string) => string,
 ): DbEntitiesRow {
   return {
     id: entity.metadata.uid!,
@@ -72,9 +71,6 @@ function toEntityRow(
     kind: entity.kind,
     name: entity.metadata.name,
     namespace: entity.metadata.namespace || null,
-    kind_normalized: normalize(entity.kind),
-    name_normalized: normalize(entity.metadata.name),
-    namespace_normalized: normalize(entity.metadata.namespace || ''),
     metadata: serializeMetadata(entity.metadata),
     spec: serializeSpec(entity.spec),
   };
@@ -162,6 +158,8 @@ export class CommonDatabase implements Database {
       throw new InputError('May not specify generation for new entities');
     }
 
+    await this.ensureNoSimilarNames(tx, request.entity);
+
     const newEntity = lodash.cloneDeep(request.entity);
     newEntity.metadata = {
       ...newEntity.metadata,
@@ -170,7 +168,7 @@ export class CommonDatabase implements Database {
       generation: 1,
     };
 
-    const newRow = toEntityRow(request.locationId, newEntity, this.normalize);
+    const newRow = toEntityRow(request.locationId, newEntity);
     await tx<DbEntitiesRow>('entities').insert(newRow);
     await this.updateEntitiesSearch(tx, newRow.id, newEntity);
 
@@ -259,9 +257,11 @@ export class CommonDatabase implements Database {
       }
     }
 
+    await this.ensureNoSimilarNames(tx, newEntity);
+
     // Store the updated entity; select on the old etag to ensure that we do
     // not lose to another writer
-    const newRow = toEntityRow(request.locationId, newEntity, this.normalize);
+    const newRow = toEntityRow(request.locationId, newEntity);
     const updatedRows = await tx<DbEntitiesRow>('entities')
       .where({ id: oldRow.id, etag: oldRow.etag })
       .update(newRow);
@@ -451,4 +451,46 @@ export class CommonDatabase implements Database {
       // we got around to writing the entries
     }
   }
+
+  private async ensureNoSimilarNames(
+    tx: Knex.Transaction<any, any>,
+    data: Entity,
+  ): Promise<void> {
+    const newKind = data.kind;
+    const newName = data.metadata.name;
+    const newNamespace = data.metadata.namespace;
+    const newKindNorm = this.normalize(newKind);
+    const newNameNorm = this.normalize(newName);
+    const newNamespaceNorm = this.normalize(newNamespace || '');
+
+    for (const item of await this.entities(tx)) {
+      if (data.metadata.uid === item.entity.metadata.uid) {
+        continue;
+      }
+
+      const oldKind = item.entity.kind;
+      const oldName = item.entity.metadata.name;
+      const oldNamespace = item.entity.metadata.namespace;
+      const oldKindNorm = this.normalize(oldKind);
+      const oldNameNorm = this.normalize(oldName);
+      const oldNamespaceNorm = this.normalize(oldNamespace || '');
+
+      if (
+        oldKindNorm === newKindNorm &&
+        oldNameNorm === newNameNorm &&
+        oldNamespaceNorm === newNamespaceNorm
+      ) {
+        // Only throw if things were actually different - for completely equal
+        // things, we let the database handle the conflict
+        if (
+          oldKind !== newKind ||
+          oldName !== newName ||
+          oldNamespace !== newNamespace
+        ) {
+          const message = `Kind, namespace, name are too similar to an existing entity`;
+          throw new ConflictError(message);
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/migrations/20200612102317_unique_normalized.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/migrations/20200612102317_unique_normalized.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 38ed7f6047..0000000000
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/migrations/20200612102317_unique_normalized.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright 2020 Spotify AB
- *
- * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-import * as Knex from 'knex';
-
-export async function up(knex: Knex): Promise<any> {
-  return knex.schema.alterTable('entities', table => {
-    // these are added as nullable because sqlite does not support alter column
-    table
-      .string('kind_normalized')
-      .nullable()
-      .comment('The kind field of the entity, normalized');
-    table
-      .string('name_normalized')
-      .nullable()
-      .comment('The metadata.name field of the entity, normalized');
-    table
-      .string('namespace_normalized')
-      .nullable()
-      .comment('The metadata.namespace field of the entity, normalized');
-    table.dropUnique([], 'entities_unique_name');
-    table.unique(
-      ['kind_normalized', 'name_normalized', 'namespace_normalized'],
-      'entities_unique_name_normalized',
-    );
-  });
-}
-
-export async function down(knex: Knex): Promise<any> {
-  return knex.schema.alterTable('entities', table => {
-    table.dropUnique([], 'entities_unique_name_normalized');
-    table.unique(['kind', 'name', 'namespace'], 'entities_unique_name');
-    table.dropColumns(
-      'kind_normalized',
-      'name_normalized',
-      'namespace_normalized',
-    );
-  });
-}
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/types.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/types.ts
index 1cf949c4c2..fc81e124ba 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/types.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/types.ts
@@ -23,9 +23,6 @@ export type DbEntitiesRow = {
   kind: string;
   name: string | null;
   namespace: string | null;
-  kind_normalized: string;
-  name_normalized: string;
-  namespace_normalized: string;
   etag: string;
   generation: number;
   metadata: string;