diff --git a/flang/lib/Semantics/resolve-names.cpp b/flang/lib/Semantics/resolve-names.cpp
--- a/flang/lib/Semantics/resolve-names.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Semantics/resolve-names.cpp
@@ -3758,8 +3758,7 @@
     symbol.ReplaceName(name.source);
     EndArraySpec();
   } else {
-    Symbol &symbol{DeclareUnknownEntity(name, Attrs{Attr::POINTER})};
-    symbol.ReplaceName(name.source);
+    HandleAttributeStmt(Attr::POINTER, std::get<parser::Name>(x.t));
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/flang/test/Semantics/assign02.f90 b/flang/test/Semantics/assign02.f90
--- a/flang/test/Semantics/assign02.f90
+++ b/flang/test/Semantics/assign02.f90
@@ -15,11 +15,11 @@
   subroutine s0
     !ERROR: 'p1' may not have both the POINTER and TARGET attributes
     real, pointer :: p1, p3
+    !ERROR: 'p2' may not have both the POINTER and ALLOCATABLE attributes
     allocatable :: p2
     !ERROR: 'sin' may not have both the POINTER and INTRINSIC attributes
     real, intrinsic, pointer :: sin
     target :: p1
-    !ERROR: 'p2' may not have both the POINTER and ALLOCATABLE attributes
     pointer :: p2
     !ERROR: 'a' may not have the POINTER attribute because it is a coarray
     real, pointer :: a(:)[*]