diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
index ac9857715dde4..c51441f701a45 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst
@@ -312,7 +312,7 @@ Deprecations
 Removal of prior version deprecations/changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 - Removed ``Panel`` (:issue:`25047`, :issue:`25191`, :issue:`25231`)
--
+- Removed the previously deprecated ``sheetname`` keyword in :func:`read_excel` (:issue:`16442`, :issue:`20938`)
 - Removed previously deprecated ``TimeGrouper`` (:issue:`16942`)
 -
 
diff --git a/pandas/io/excel/_base.py b/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
index c0678575fd6f0..a0d51e85aa4f3 100644
--- a/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
+++ b/pandas/io/excel/_base.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 import os
 from textwrap import fill
 from urllib.request import urlopen
-import warnings
 
 from pandas._config import config
 
@@ -291,15 +290,10 @@ def read_excel(io,
                mangle_dupe_cols=True,
                **kwds):
 
-    # Can't use _deprecate_kwarg since sheetname=None has a special meaning
-    if is_integer(sheet_name) and sheet_name == 0 and 'sheetname' in kwds:
-        warnings.warn("The `sheetname` keyword is deprecated, use "
-                      "`sheet_name` instead", FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
-        sheet_name = kwds.pop("sheetname")
-
-    if 'sheet' in kwds:
-        raise TypeError("read_excel() got an unexpected keyword argument "
-                        "`sheet`")
+    for arg in ('sheet', 'sheetname'):
+        if arg in kwds:
+            raise TypeError("read_excel() got an unexpected keyword argument "
+                            "`{}`".format(arg))
 
     if not isinstance(io, ExcelFile):
         io = ExcelFile(io, engine=engine)
@@ -833,16 +827,6 @@ def parse(self,
         DataFrame or dict of DataFrames
             DataFrame from the passed in Excel file.
         """
-
-        # Can't use _deprecate_kwarg since sheetname=None has a special meaning
-        if is_integer(sheet_name) and sheet_name == 0 and 'sheetname' in kwds:
-            warnings.warn("The `sheetname` keyword is deprecated, use "
-                          "`sheet_name` instead", FutureWarning, stacklevel=2)
-            sheet_name = kwds.pop("sheetname")
-        elif 'sheetname' in kwds:
-            raise TypeError("Cannot specify both `sheet_name` "
-                            "and `sheetname`. Use just `sheet_name`")
-
         if 'chunksize' in kwds:
             raise NotImplementedError("chunksize keyword of read_excel "
                                       "is not implemented")
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py
index f9926cd26d8da..44ce3111c3a1e 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py
@@ -342,15 +342,15 @@ def test_excel_passes_na(self, ext):
         tm.assert_frame_equal(parsed, expected)
 
     @td.skip_if_no('xlrd', '1.0.1')  # GH-22682
-    def test_deprecated_sheetname(self, ext):
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('arg', ['sheet', 'sheetname'])
+    def test_unexpected_kwargs_raises(self, ext, arg):
         # gh-17964
         excel = self.get_excelfile('test1', ext)
 
-        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning, check_stacklevel=False):
-            read_excel(excel, sheetname='Sheet1')
-
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError):
-            read_excel(excel, sheet='Sheet1')
+        kwarg = {arg: 'Sheet1'}
+        msg = "unexpected keyword argument `{}`".format(arg)
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
+            read_excel(excel, **kwarg)
 
     @td.skip_if_no('xlrd', '1.0.1')  # GH-22682
     def test_excel_table_sheet_by_index(self, ext):
@@ -588,32 +588,20 @@ def test_sheet_name_and_sheetname(self, ext):
         df_ref = self.get_csv_refdf(filename)
         df1 = self.get_exceldf(filename, ext,
                                sheet_name=sheet_name, index_col=0)  # doc
-        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning, check_stacklevel=False):
-            with ignore_xlrd_time_clock_warning():
-                df2 = self.get_exceldf(filename, ext, index_col=0,
-                                       sheetname=sheet_name)  # backward compat
+        with ignore_xlrd_time_clock_warning():
+            df2 = self.get_exceldf(filename, ext, index_col=0,
+                                   sheet_name=sheet_name)
 
         excel = self.get_excelfile(filename, ext)
         df1_parse = excel.parse(sheet_name=sheet_name, index_col=0)  # doc
-        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning, check_stacklevel=False):
-            df2_parse = excel.parse(index_col=0,
-                                    sheetname=sheet_name)  # backward compat
+        df2_parse = excel.parse(index_col=0,
+                                sheet_name=sheet_name)
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, df_ref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, df_ref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1_parse, df_ref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2_parse, df_ref, check_names=False)
 
-    def test_sheet_name_both_raises(self, ext):
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Cannot specify both"):
-            self.get_exceldf('test1', ext, sheetname='Sheet1',
-                             sheet_name='Sheet1')
-
-        excel = self.get_excelfile('test1', ext)
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Cannot specify both"):
-            excel.parse(sheetname='Sheet1',
-                        sheet_name='Sheet1')
-
     def test_excel_read_buffer(self, ext):
 
         pth = os.path.join(self.dirpath, 'test1' + ext)