diff --git a/lisp/emacs-lisp/loaddefs-gen.el b/lisp/emacs-lisp/loaddefs-gen.el
index 7eced43e735..0f82239da63 100644
--- a/lisp/emacs-lisp/loaddefs-gen.el
+++ b/lisp/emacs-lisp/loaddefs-gen.el
@@ -506,14 +506,15 @@ loaddefs-generate--compute-prefixes
                ;; Consider `read-symbol-shorthands'.
                (probe (let ((obarray (obarray-make)))
                         (car (read-from-string name)))))
-          (setq name (symbol-name probe))
-          (when (save-excursion
-                  (goto-char (match-beginning 0))
-                  (or (bobp)
-                      (progn
-                        (forward-line -1)
-                        (not (looking-at ";;;###autoload")))))
-            (push name prefs)))))
+          (when (symbolp probe)
+            (setq name (symbol-name probe))
+            (when (save-excursion
+                    (goto-char (match-beginning 0))
+                    (or (bobp)
+                        (progn
+                          (forward-line -1)
+                          (not (looking-at ";;;###autoload")))))
+              (push name prefs))))))
     (loaddefs-generate--make-prefixes prefs load-name)))
 
 (defun loaddefs-generate--rubric (file &optional type feature compile)