diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index ccdaab3881..70d56ee4bb 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -435,13 +435,7 @@ mscms             = platform_windows ? cc.find_library('mscms') : no_dep
 atk_minver        = '2.4.0'
 atk               = dependency('atk',                version: '>='+atk_minver)
 babl_minver       = '0.1.116'
-babl              = dependency('babl-0.1',           version: '>='+babl_minver, required: false)
-if not babl.found()
-  # babl changed its pkg-config name from 'babl' to 'babl-0.1' in version
-  # 0.1.100 (0.1.99 dev cycle more exactly). 'babl-0.1' is checked in priority
-  # because it would be a newer version.
-  babl            = dependency('babl',               version: '>='+babl_minver)
-endif
+babl              = dependency('babl-0.1',           version: '>='+babl_minver)
 # TODO: we want to bump to Cairo 1.17.2 when possible in order to use
 # CAIRO_FORMAT_RGBA128F unconditionally. At time of writing, it's not possible
 # because of our bookworm availability requirement.