diff --git a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen.kt b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen.kt
index 277209f82..c17510705 100644
--- a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen.kt
+++ b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen.kt
@@ -451,8 +451,7 @@ internal class BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen(private val program: Program,
     private fun funcMemory(fcall: IFunctionCall, discardResult: Boolean, resultToStack: Boolean, resultRegister: RegisterOrPair?) {
         if(discardResult || fcall !is FunctionCallExpression)
             throw AssemblyError("should not discard result of memory allocation at $fcall")
-        val nameRef = fcall.args[0] as IdentifierReference
-        val name = (nameRef.targetVarDecl(program)!!.value as StringLiteralValue).value
+        val name = (fcall.args[0] as StringLiteralValue).value
         require(name.all { it.isLetterOrDigit() || it=='_' }) {"memory name should be a valid symbol name"}
         val size = (fcall.args[1] as NumericLiteralValue).number.toUInt()
         val align = (fcall.args[2] as NumericLiteralValue).number.toUInt()
diff --git a/compiler/src/prog8/compiler/astprocessing/LiteralsToAutoVars.kt b/compiler/src/prog8/compiler/astprocessing/LiteralsToAutoVars.kt
index 3ac1e05a3..6d5bfb18e 100644
--- a/compiler/src/prog8/compiler/astprocessing/LiteralsToAutoVars.kt
+++ b/compiler/src/prog8/compiler/astprocessing/LiteralsToAutoVars.kt
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 package prog8.compiler.astprocessing
 
+import prog8.ast.IFunctionCall
 import prog8.ast.Node
 import prog8.ast.Program
 import prog8.ast.base.DataType
@@ -20,6 +21,14 @@ internal class LiteralsToAutoVars(private val program: Program) : AstWalker() {
             && string.parent !is WhenChoice
             && (string.parent !is ContainmentCheck || string.value.length>ContainmentCheck.max_inlined_string_length)) {
             // replace the literal string by an identifier reference to the interned string
+
+            val parentFunc = (string.parent as? IFunctionCall)?.target
+            if(parentFunc!=null) {
+                if(parentFunc.nameInSource.size==1 && parentFunc.nameInSource[0]=="memory") {
+                    // memory() builtin function just uses the string as a label name
+                    return noModifications
+                }
+            }
             val scopedName = program.internString(string)
             val identifier = IdentifierReference(scopedName, string.position)
             return listOf(IAstModification.ReplaceNode(string, identifier, parent))
diff --git a/docs/source/todo.rst b/docs/source/todo.rst
index ca7acf261..1d2457989 100644
--- a/docs/source/todo.rst
+++ b/docs/source/todo.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ TODO
 
 For next release
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-- get rid of the interned string literals from memory() calls.
 - (newvaralloc) UnusedCodeRemover after(decl: VarDecl): fix that vars defined in a library can also safely be removed if unused. Currently this breaks programs such as textelite (due to diskio.save().end_address ?)
 - check that retval_interm_* are not in  the varallocation if they're not used
 - make it so that subroutine parameters as variables can again be allocated in ZP, if there's still space
diff --git a/examples/test.p8 b/examples/test.p8
index 8e2e80176..f92a820bd 100644
--- a/examples/test.p8
+++ b/examples/test.p8
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ main {
     ubyte @zp mainglobal1=10
     float @shared fl1 = floats.TWOPI
 
-    uword @shared m1 = memory("eee", 200, 0)
+    uword @shared m1 = memory("ee", 200, 0)
 
     uword [2] nullwords
     ubyte [2] nullbytes