diff --git a/testscript/testdata/testscript_duplicate_name.txt b/testscript/testdata/testscript_duplicate_name.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..231c71c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testscript/testdata/testscript_duplicate_name.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Check that RequireUniqueNames works;
+# it should reject txtar archives with duplicate names as defined by the host system.
+
+unquote scripts-case-insensitive/testscript.txt
+unquote scripts-case-sensitive/testscript.txt
+unquote scripts-normalized/testscript.txt
+
+testscript scripts-case-insensitive
+testscript scripts-case-sensitive
+testscript scripts-normalized
+
+[darwin] ! testscript -unique-names scripts-case-insensitive
+[darwin] stdout 'duplicate name'
+
+[linux] testscript -unique-names scripts-case-insensitive
+
+[windows] ! testscript -unique-names scripts-case-insensitive
+[windows] stdout 'duplicate name'
+
+! testscript -unique-names scripts-case-sensitive
+stdout 'duplicate name'
+
+! testscript -unique-names scripts-normalized
+stdout 'duplicate name'
+
+-- scripts-case-insensitive/testscript.txt --
+>-- File --
+>-- file --
+-- scripts-case-sensitive/testscript.txt --
+>-- file --
+>-- file --
+-- scripts-normalized/testscript.txt --
+>-- file --
+>-- dir/../file --
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/testscript/testscript.go b/testscript/testscript.go
index 6f43bd6c..e449646e 100644
--- a/testscript/testscript.go
+++ b/testscript/testscript.go
@@ -10,9 +10,11 @@ package testscript
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
+	"errors"
 	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"go/build"
+	"io/fs"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
@@ -161,6 +163,10 @@ type Params struct {
 	// consistency across test scripts as well as keep separate process
 	// executions explicit.
 	RequireExplicitExec bool
+
+	// RequireUniqueNames requires that names in the txtar archive are unique.
+	// By default, later entries silently overwrite earlier ones.
+	RequireUniqueNames bool
 }
 
 // RunDir runs the tests in the given directory. All files in dir with a ".txt"
@@ -364,6 +370,11 @@ func (ts *TestScript) setup() string {
 	ts.archive = a
 	for _, f := range a.Files {
 		name := ts.MkAbs(ts.expand(f.Name))
+		if ts.params.RequireUniqueNames {
+			if _, err := os.Lstat(name); !errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
+				ts.Fatalf("%s: duplicate name", f.Name)
+			}
+		}
 		ts.scriptFiles[name] = f.Name
 		ts.Check(os.MkdirAll(filepath.Dir(name), 0o777))
 		ts.Check(ioutil.WriteFile(name, f.Data, 0o666))
diff --git a/testscript/testscript_test.go b/testscript/testscript_test.go
index c09cabb8..84cbc536 100644
--- a/testscript/testscript_test.go
+++ b/testscript/testscript_test.go
@@ -183,6 +183,7 @@ func TestScripts(t *testing.T) {
 				fset := flag.NewFlagSet("testscript", flag.ContinueOnError)
 				fUpdate := fset.Bool("update", false, "update scripts when cmp fails")
 				fExplicitExec := fset.Bool("explicit-exec", false, "require explicit use of exec for commands")
+				fUniqueNames := fset.Bool("unique-names", false, "require unique names in txtar archive")
 				fVerbose := fset.Bool("verbose", false, "be verbose with output")
 				if err := fset.Parse(args); err != nil {
 					ts.Fatalf("failed to parse args for testscript: %v", err)
@@ -204,6 +205,7 @@ func TestScripts(t *testing.T) {
 						Dir:                 ts.MkAbs(dir),
 						UpdateScripts:       *fUpdate,
 						RequireExplicitExec: *fExplicitExec,
+						RequireUniqueNames:  *fUniqueNames,
 						Cmds: map[string]func(ts *TestScript, neg bool, args []string){
 							"some-param-cmd": func(ts *TestScript, neg bool, args []string) {
 							},