diff --git a/packages/compiler/src/render3/r3_template_transform.ts b/packages/compiler/src/render3/r3_template_transform.ts
index 6a831f4a48..716e5254e7 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/src/render3/r3_template_transform.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/src/render3/r3_template_transform.ts
@@ -458,6 +458,8 @@ class HtmlAstToIvyAst implements html.Visitor {
       this.reportError(`"-" is not allowed in reference names`, sourceSpan);
     } else if (identifier.length === 0) {
       this.reportError(`Reference does not have a name`, sourceSpan);
+    } else if (references.some(reference => reference.name === identifier)) {
+      this.reportError(`Reference "#${identifier}" is defined more than once`, sourceSpan);
     }
 
     references.push(new t.Reference(identifier, value, sourceSpan, keySpan, valueSpan));
diff --git a/packages/compiler/test/render3/r3_template_transform_spec.ts b/packages/compiler/test/render3/r3_template_transform_spec.ts
index c259485073..cf1cfb40bf 100644
--- a/packages/compiler/test/render3/r3_template_transform_spec.ts
+++ b/packages/compiler/test/render3/r3_template_transform_spec.ts
@@ -273,6 +273,11 @@ describe('R3 template transform', () => {
       ]);
     });
 
+    it('should report an error if a reference is used multiple times on the same template', () => {
+      expect(() => parse('<ng-template #a #a></ng-template>'))
+          .toThrowError(/Reference "#a" is defined more than once/);
+    });
+
     it('should parse variables via let-...', () => {
       expectFromHtml('<ng-template let-a="b"></ng-template>').toEqual([
         ['Template'],
@@ -463,6 +468,11 @@ describe('R3 template transform', () => {
     it('should report missing reference names', () => {
       expect(() => parse('<div #></div>')).toThrowError(/Reference does not have a name/);
     });
+
+    it('should report an error if a reference is used multiple times on the same element', () => {
+      expect(() => parse('<div #a #a></div>'))
+          .toThrowError(/Reference "#a" is defined more than once/);
+    });
   });
 
   describe('literal attribute', () => {