diff --git a/libavcodec/Makefile b/libavcodec/Makefile
index 251a6b22fc..34e4cc302b 100644
--- a/libavcodec/Makefile
+++ b/libavcodec/Makefile
@@ -785,7 +785,6 @@ OBJS-$(!CONFIG_SMALL)                  += inverse.o
 SKIPHEADERS                            += %_tablegen.h                  \
                                           %_tables.h                    \
                                           aac_tablegen_decl.h           \
-                                          codec_names.h                 \
                                           fft-internal.h                \
                                           old_codec_ids.h               \
                                           tableprint.h                  \
@@ -860,10 +859,3 @@ $(SUBDIR)motionpixels.o: $(SUBDIR)motionpixels_tables.h
 $(SUBDIR)pcm.o: $(SUBDIR)pcm_tables.h
 $(SUBDIR)qdm2.o: $(SUBDIR)qdm2_tables.h
 endif
-
-CODEC_NAMES_SH := $(SRC_PATH)/$(SUBDIR)codec_names.sh
-AVCODEC_H      := $(SRC_PATH)/$(SUBDIR)avcodec.h
-$(SUBDIR)codec_names.h: $(CODEC_NAMES_SH) config.h $(AVCODEC_H)
-	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGS) -E $(AVCODEC_H) | \
-	$(CODEC_NAMES_SH) config.h $@
-$(SUBDIR)utils.o: $(SUBDIR)codec_names.h
diff --git a/libavcodec/codec_names.sh b/libavcodec/codec_names.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 44ccb45afe..0000000000
--- a/libavcodec/codec_names.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,84 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-# Copyright (c) 2011 Nicolas George
-#
-# This file is part of FFmpeg.
-#
-# FFmpeg is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
-# modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
-# License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
-# version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# FFmpeg is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
-# Lesser General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
-# License along with FFmpeg; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
-# Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
-
-set -e
-
-config="$1"
-out="$2"
-test -n "$out"
-
-outval=""
-
-add_line () {
-  outval="$outval$*
-"
-}
-
-parse_config_h () {
-  while read define var value; do
-    case "$define $var $value" in
-      "#define CONFIG_"*_*" 1") eval "$var=1";;
-    esac
-  done
-}
-
-define_codecid () {
-  id="$1"
-  n=${1#AV_CODEC_ID_}
-  add_line "case ${id}:"
-  eval "c=\${CONFIG_${n}_DECODER}:\${CONFIG_${n}_ENCODER}"
-  case "$c" in
-    1:*) s="decoder";;
-    *:1) s="encoder";;
-    *) s="";;
-  esac
-  case "$s" in
-    "") add_line "    return \"$n\";" ;;
-    *)
-      add_line "    { extern AVCodec ff_${n}_${s};"
-      add_line "      return ff_${n}_${s}.name; }"
-      ;;
-  esac
-}
-
-parse_enum_codecid () {
-  while read line; do
-    case "$line" in
-      "};") break;;
-      *AV_CODEC_ID_FIRST*=*) ;;
-      AV_CODEC_ID_*) define_codecid ${line%%[=,]*};;
-    esac
-  done
-}
-
-parse_avcodec_h () {
-  while read line; do
-    case "$line" in
-      "enum AVCodecID {") parse_enum_codecid; break;;
-    esac
-  done
-}
-
-parse_config_h  < "$config"
-parse_avcodec_h # use stdin
-sed -e '/case.*:/!y/ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ/abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz/' \
-    -e 's/extern avcodec /extern AVCodec /' > "$out" <<EOF
-$outval
-EOF
diff --git a/libavcodec/utils.c b/libavcodec/utils.c
index 90df647db7..03caf1c026 100644
--- a/libavcodec/utils.c
+++ b/libavcodec/utils.c
@@ -1847,14 +1847,13 @@ AVCodec *avcodec_find_decoder_by_name(const char *name)
 
 const char *avcodec_get_name(enum AVCodecID id)
 {
+    const AVCodecDescriptor *cd;
     AVCodec *codec;
 
-#if !CONFIG_SMALL
-    switch (id) {
-#include "libavcodec/codec_names.h"
-    }
+    cd = avcodec_descriptor_get(id);
+    if (cd)
+        return cd->name;
     av_log(NULL, AV_LOG_WARNING, "Codec 0x%x is not in the full list.\n", id);
-#endif
     codec = avcodec_find_decoder(id);
     if (codec)
         return codec->name;