Calls sailor back when one American's left (5)

I believe the answer is:

names

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'calls' is the definition.
('name' can be a synonym of 'call')

'sailor back when one american's left' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'man'.
'back' says the letters should be written backwards.
'when one american's left' becomes 'es' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'man' back-to-front is 'nam'.
'nam'+'es'='NAMES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for names that I've seen before include "Titles" , "Appellations or identifiers" , "celebrities" , "Paul, Pat, John" , "Some people drop these to sound important" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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