diff --git a/contributors.sh b/contributors.sh
index d148f5289..de1944d62 100755
--- a/contributors.sh
+++ b/contributors.sh
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ fi
 # split list of names at comma
 # cut off spaces first and last on the line
 # only count names with a space (ie more than one word)
+# filter alternatives through THANKS-filter
 # sort all unique names
 # awk them into RELEASE-NOTES format
 git log $start..HEAD | \
@@ -46,7 +47,8 @@ cut '-d<' -f1 | \
 tr , '\012' | \
 sed -e 's/^ //' -e 's/ $//g' | \
 grep ' ' | \
-sort -fu |
+sed -f ./docs/THANKS-filter | \
+sort -fu | \
 awk '{
  num++;
  n = sprintf("%s%s%s,", n, length(n)?" ":"", $0);
diff --git a/docs/THANKS-filter b/docs/THANKS-filter
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b769cadab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/THANKS-filter
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+# This is a list of names we have recorded that already are thanked
+# appropriately in THANKS. This list contains variations of their names and
+# their "canonical" name. This file is used for scripting purposes to avoid
+# duplicate entries and will not be included in release tarballs.
+# When removing dupes that aren't identical names from THANKS, add a line
+# here!
+#
+# Used-by: contributor.sh
+s/Andres Garcia/Andrés García/
+s/Chris Conroy/Christopher Conroy/
+s/Francois Charlier/François Charlier/
+s/Gokhan Sengun/Gökhan Şengün/
+s/John Malmberg/John E. Malmberg/
+s/Luca Alteas/Luca Altea/
+s/Michal Gorny/Michał Górny/
+s/Moonesamy/S. Moonesamy/
+s/Pete Su$/Peter Su/
+s/Sam Listopad/Samuel Listopad/
+s/Sebastien Willemijns/Sébastien Willemijns/
+s/YAMADA Yasuharu/Yasuharu Yamada/
+s/Karl M$/Karl Moerder/
+s/Bjorn Stenberg/Björn Stenberg/
+s/upstream tests 305 and 404//
+s/Gaël PORTAY/Gaël Portay/
+s/Romulo Ceccon/Romulo A. Ceccon/
+s/Nach M. S$/Nach M. S./
+s/Jay Satiro/Ray Satiro/
+s/Richard J. Moore/Richard Moore/
+s/Sergey Nikulov/Sergei Nikulov/
+s/Petr Písař/Petr Pisar/
+s/Nick Zitzmann (originally)/Nick Zitzmann/
+s/product-security at Apple//
+s/IT DOES NOT WORK//
+s/Albert Chin/Albert Chin-A-Young/
+s/Paras S/Paras Sethia/
+s/Дмитрий Фалько/Dmitry Falko/
+s/byte_bucket in the #curl IRC channel//
+s/Michal Górny and Anthony G. Basile//
+s/Alejandro Alvarez$/Alejandro Alvarez Ayllon/
+s/Ant Bryan/Anthony Bryan/
+s/Cédric Deltheil/Cédric Deltheil/
+s/Christian Hagele/Christian Hägele/
+s/douglas steinwand/Douglas Steinwand/
+s/Frank Van Uffelen and Fabian Hiernaux//
+s/Rodrigo Silva (MestreLion)/Rodrigo Silva/
+s/tetetest tetetest//
+s/Jiří Hruška/Jiri Hruska/