diff --git a/builtin/commit.c b/builtin/commit.c
index 7da5f92448..d1785d32db 100644
--- a/builtin/commit.c
+++ b/builtin/commit.c
@@ -900,7 +900,7 @@ static int prepare_to_commit(const char *index_file, const char *prefix,
 		strbuf_stripspace(&sb, '\0');
 
 	if (signoff)
-		append_signoff(&sb, ignore_non_trailer(sb.buf, sb.len), 0);
+		append_signoff(&sb, ignored_log_message_bytes(sb.buf, sb.len), 0);
 
 	if (fwrite(sb.buf, 1, sb.len, s->fp) < sb.len)
 		die_errno(_("could not write commit template"));
diff --git a/builtin/merge.c b/builtin/merge.c
index 545da0c8a1..c654a29fe8 100644
--- a/builtin/merge.c
+++ b/builtin/merge.c
@@ -870,7 +870,7 @@ static void prepare_to_commit(struct commit_list *remoteheads)
 				_(no_scissors_editor_comment), comment_line_char);
 	}
 	if (signoff)
-		append_signoff(&msg, ignore_non_trailer(msg.buf, msg.len), 0);
+		append_signoff(&msg, ignored_log_message_bytes(msg.buf, msg.len), 0);
 	write_merge_heads(remoteheads);
 	write_file_buf(git_path_merge_msg(the_repository), msg.buf, msg.len);
 	if (run_commit_hook(0 < option_edit, get_index_file(), NULL,
diff --git a/commit.c b/commit.c
index b3223478bc..4440fbabb8 100644
--- a/commit.c
+++ b/commit.c
@@ -1769,7 +1769,7 @@ const char *find_commit_header(const char *msg, const char *key, size_t *out_len
  * Returns the number of bytes from the tail to ignore, to be fed as
  * the second parameter to append_signoff().
  */
-size_t ignore_non_trailer(const char *buf, size_t len)
+size_t ignored_log_message_bytes(const char *buf, size_t len)
 {
 	size_t boc = 0;
 	size_t bol = 0;
diff --git a/commit.h b/commit.h
index 28928833c5..1cc872f225 100644
--- a/commit.h
+++ b/commit.h
@@ -294,8 +294,8 @@ const char *find_header_mem(const char *msg, size_t len,
 const char *find_commit_header(const char *msg, const char *key,
 			       size_t *out_len);
 
-/* Find the end of the log message, the right place for a new trailer. */
-size_t ignore_non_trailer(const char *buf, size_t len);
+/* Find the number of bytes to ignore from the end of a log message. */
+size_t ignored_log_message_bytes(const char *buf, size_t len);
 
 typedef int (*each_mergetag_fn)(struct commit *commit, struct commit_extra_header *extra,
 				void *cb_data);
diff --git a/trailer.c b/trailer.c
index b6de5d9cb2..3c54b38a85 100644
--- a/trailer.c
+++ b/trailer.c
@@ -928,7 +928,7 @@ static size_t find_trailer_start(const char *buf, size_t len)
 /* Return the position of the end of the trailers. */
 static size_t find_trailer_end(const char *buf, size_t len)
 {
-	return len - ignore_non_trailer(buf, len);
+	return len - ignored_log_message_bytes(buf, len);
 }
 
 static int ends_with_blank_line(const char *buf, size_t len)