diff --git a/mercurial/namespaces.py b/mercurial/namespaces.py
--- a/mercurial/namespaces.py
+++ b/mercurial/namespaces.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from i18n import _
 from mercurial import util
+import templatekw
 
 def tolist(val):
     """
@@ -74,6 +75,13 @@ class namespaces(object):
         else:
             self._names[namespace] = val
 
+        # we only generate a template keyword if one does not already exist
+        if namespace not in templatekw.keywords:
+            def generatekw(**args):
+                return templatekw.shownames(namespace, **args)
+
+            templatekw.keywords[namespace] = generatekw
+
     def singlenode(self, repo, name):
         """
         Return the 'best' node for the given name. Best means the first node