diff --git a/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c b/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
index 8ff3be611de..7112e9751b1 100644
--- a/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
+++ b/src/backend/libpq/pqcomm.c
@@ -537,13 +537,11 @@ StreamServerPort(int family, const char *hostName, unsigned short portNumber,
 		}
 
 		/*
-		 * Select appropriate accept-queue length limit.  PG_SOMAXCONN is only
-		 * intended to provide a clamp on the request on platforms where an
-		 * overly large request provokes a kernel error (are there any?).
+		 * Select appropriate accept-queue length limit.  It seems reasonable
+		 * to use a value similar to the maximum number of child processes
+		 * that the postmaster will permit.
 		 */
-		maxconn = MaxBackends * 2;
-		if (maxconn > PG_SOMAXCONN)
-			maxconn = PG_SOMAXCONN;
+		maxconn = MaxConnections * 2;
 
 		err = listen(fd, maxconn);
 		if (err < 0)
diff --git a/src/include/pg_config_manual.h b/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
index 844c3e0f094..f2a106f983d 100644
--- a/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
+++ b/src/include/pg_config_manual.h
@@ -114,17 +114,6 @@
  */
 #define MAXPGPATH		1024
 
-/*
- * PG_SOMAXCONN: maximum accept-queue length limit passed to
- * listen(2).  You'd think we should use SOMAXCONN from
- * <sys/socket.h>, but on many systems that symbol is much smaller
- * than the kernel's actual limit.  In any case, this symbol need be
- * twiddled only if you have a kernel that refuses large limit values,
- * rather than silently reducing the value to what it can handle
- * (which is what most if not all Unixen do).
- */
-#define PG_SOMAXCONN	10000
-
 /*
  * You can try changing this if you have a machine with bytes of
  * another size, but no guarantee...