diff --git a/packages/core/src/design-jsx/component-properties.ts b/packages/core/src/design-jsx/component-properties.ts
index 905395a8f..779f7a3db 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/design-jsx/component-properties.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/design-jsx/component-properties.ts
@@ -34,6 +34,11 @@ export function componentMetadata(
     const definitions = v.parse(v.array(definitionSchema), props.properties)
     if (new Set(definitions.map((definition) => definition.id)).size !== definitions.length)
       throw new Error('Duplicate component property IDs')
+    const variantNames = definitions
+      .filter((item) => item.type === 'VARIANT')
+      .map((item) => item.name)
+    if (new Set(variantNames).size !== variantNames.length)
+      throw new Error('Duplicate variant property names')
     result.componentPropertyDefinitions = definitions
   }
   if (props.propertyRefs !== undefined) {
diff --git a/tests/engine/render/jsx/component/properties.test.ts b/tests/engine/render/jsx/component/properties.test.ts
index 172e2f2a4..ef5bf1d01 100644
--- a/tests/engine/render/jsx/component/properties.test.ts
+++ b/tests/engine/render/jsx/component/properties.test.ts
@@ -174,4 +174,28 @@ test('validates metadata rather than accepting silent malformed property definit
   await expect(renderTree(graph, Component({ properties: [MESSAGE, MESSAGE] }))).rejects.toThrow(
     'Duplicate'
   )
+  for (const element of [Component, ComponentSet]) {
+    await expect(
+      renderTree(
+        graph,
+        element({
+          properties: [
+            { id: 'kind-a', name: 'Kind', type: 'VARIANT', defaultValue: 'A' },
+            { id: 'kind-b', name: 'Kind', type: 'VARIANT', defaultValue: 'B' }
+          ]
+        })
+      )
+    ).rejects.toThrow('Duplicate variant property names')
+  }
+})
+
+test('preserves duplicate display names for non-variant properties with distinct IDs', async () => {
+  const graph = makeSceneGraph()
+  const result = await renderTree(
+    graph,
+    Component({ properties: [MESSAGE, { ...MESSAGE, id: 'other-message' }] })
+  )
+  expect(
+    getNodeOrThrow(graph, result.id).componentPropertyDefinitions.map((item) => item.id)
+  ).toEqual(['message', 'other-message'])
 })