Currently, eTapestry requires a match of name and/or email or address (2 things) to qualify as a duplicate. Since we have to approve merging before it happens anyway, I think eTapestry should include possible duplicates just by name. I've had to manually merge too many because of this.
We check for duplicates in different ways depending on the functionality being used. For more information on the exact behavior, please see the following KB articles:
The Duplicate Report Vs. One Off Duplicate Check
Do online forms check for duplicates?
How Do Duplicate Keys Work during Imports?