diff --git a/src/bin/pg_dump/dumputils.c b/src/bin/pg_dump/dumputils.c
index 892d3fa..3459adc 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_dump/dumputils.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_dump/dumputils.c
@@ -1217,7 +1217,7 @@ simple_string_list_append(SimpleStringList *list, const char *val)
 	SimpleStringListCell *cell;
 
 	/* this calculation correctly accounts for the null trailing byte */
-	cell = (SimpleStringListCell *) pg_malloc(sizeof(SimpleStringListCell));
+	cell = (SimpleStringListCell *) pg_malloc(offsetof(SimpleStringListCell, val));
 
 	cell->next = NULL;
 	strcpy(cell->val, val);