Comment #1 on issue 531 by allber...@gmail.com: Multiple workspaces with the same name confuses XMonad http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=531 Why would you expect that? The tag ("name") is the only externally visible handle xmonad has on a workspace. It's conceivable that other window managers use internal names for workspaces and let you map many of those to the same display name, but xmonad uses the tag as the workspace's real name and expects the tag to be unique. (In fact I am a little surprised xmonad doesn't check and complain when tags aren't unique.) There are ways to get display names that differ from the internal tag, but you'll have to do extra work to get them. (You can for example modify or replace the names that DynamicLog sends to an external panel, which is often used to add clickable icons in dzen.)