diff --git a/src/logging.c b/src/logging.c
index 1374ddc5..f2656df0 100644
--- a/src/logging.c
+++ b/src/logging.c
@@ -771,13 +771,20 @@ int rcutils_logging_get_logger_level(const char * name)
 
 static rcutils_ret_t add_key_to_hash_map(const char * name, int level, bool set_by_user)
 {
-  // Copy the name that we will store, as there is no guarantee that the caller will keep it around.
-
-  char * copy_name = rcutils_strdup(name, g_rcutils_logging_allocator);
-  if (copy_name == NULL) {
-    // Don't report an error to the error handling machinery; some uses of this function are for
-    // caching so this is not necessarily fatal.
-    return RCUTILS_RET_ERROR;
+  const char * copy_name = name;
+  // Check if key already exists, to avoid extra memory allocation
+  // If the key already exists, then rcutils_hash_map_set will not maintain the key we give it,
+  // so we do not need to copy the name
+  bool already_exists = rcutils_hash_map_key_exists(&g_rcutils_logging_severities_map, &copy_name);
+
+  if (!already_exists) {
+    // Copy the name to be stored, as there is no guarantee that the caller will keep it around.
+    copy_name = rcutils_strdup(name, g_rcutils_logging_allocator);
+    if (copy_name == NULL) {
+      // Don't report an error to the error handling machinery; some uses of this function are for
+      // caching so this is not necessarily fatal.
+      return RCUTILS_RET_ERROR;
+    }
   }
 
   if (set_by_user) {