He was named after his father.

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kadioguy

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Tarheel

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It seems to me it should be "was named" there. Having said that, most people probably wouldn't notice if "is" was there instead of "was".
 

kadioguy

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It seems to me it should be "was named" there. Having said that, most people probably wouldn't notice if "is" was there instead of "was".
I just found this:

be named [verb phrase]
someone who is named Paul, Jane etc has the name Paul, Jane etc:
· Their new baby is named Caroline.
[From Longman Language Activator]
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So I think that "is named" means it/he/she has this name while "was named" means that the action happened in the past. Does this make sense to you?
 

Barque

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Yes.

The word "named" can have two slightly different meanings.

One is the fact of carrying a name. "Someone who is named Paul" means "A person who has the name Paul".
The other is being given a name, or the act of giving a name. "He was named after his father" means that when he was born, his parents decided to give him the same name as his father.

The second's often a past event but it could also be a current one. If it just happened, you could say "He has been named after his father". If it's going to happen you could say "If it's a boy, they'll name him after his father".
 
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