Learn English – word for someone with the same name

single-word-requests

If a person shares my name, in Dutch there is the word "naamgenoot", meaning roughly 'member of the same name'.

John A: Hi, my name is "John"
John B: O, then we're insert solution word here!

Similarly,

  • 'classmate' is 'klasgenoot' in Dutch
  • 'roommate' is 'kamergenoot' in Dutch

I'm pretty sure I cannot call someone with the same name as mine a 'namemate' 🙂

Edit Because sceptics appear to be frustrated mightily by an apparent lack of research, there was some discussion on this in chat, with no satisfactory conclusion.

According to WP/Merriam Webster namesake appears to be linked to intentional name correspondance (being named after someone). There may be a US/UK English divide there.

"I was named after my grandfather. I am his namesake." – usage per Wikipedia

Also, the introduction seems to hint at much broader meaning:

"Namesake is a term used to characterize a person, place, thing, quality, action, state, or idea that has the same, or a similar, name to another"

Do you know of a better word/phrase to describe this succinctly?

Best Answer

The word namefellow or name-fellow, although rather obscure, does have exactly the meaning you're after, without the connotation of namesake that both people are named after the same person.

In Tristram of Lyonesse (1882) by the poet A.C. Swinburne, the protagonist travels to Brittany where he meets another knight named Tristram:

But by the sea-banks where at morn their foes
Might find them, lay those knightly name-fellows,
One sick with grief of heart and sleepless, one
With heart of hope triumphant as the sun

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