diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
index 1cd325dad9f07..a9585fd13e36b 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst
@@ -161,7 +161,8 @@ ExtensionArray
 
 Other
 ^^^^^
--
+- Appending a dictionary to a :class:`DataFrame` without passing ``ignore_index=True`` will raise ``TypeError: Can only append a dict if ignore_index=True``
+  instead of ``TypeError: Can only append a Series if ignore_index=True or if the Series has a name`` (:issue:`30871`)
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pandas/core/frame.py b/pandas/core/frame.py
index 1a49388d81243..7817cd08ab9a9 100644
--- a/pandas/core/frame.py
+++ b/pandas/core/frame.py
@@ -7062,6 +7062,8 @@ def append(
         """
         if isinstance(other, (Series, dict)):
             if isinstance(other, dict):
+                if not ignore_index:
+                    raise TypeError("Can only append a dict if ignore_index=True")
                 other = Series(other)
             if other.name is None and not ignore_index:
                 raise TypeError(
diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_append.py b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_append.py
index d128a51f4b390..9fc3629e794e2 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_append.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_append.py
@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@ def test_append_series_dict(self):
         )
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected.loc[:, result.columns])
 
+        msg = "Can only append a dict if ignore_index=True"
+        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
+            df.append(series.to_dict())
+
         # can append when name set
         row = df.loc[4]
         row.name = 5