diff --git a/R/pkg/NAMESPACE b/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
index d5eb1d21de9ef..9476467f9be7c 100644
--- a/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
+++ b/R/pkg/NAMESPACE
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ exportMethods("arrange",
               "isLocal",
               "join",
               "limit",
+              "merge",
               "orderBy",
               "mutate",
               "names",
diff --git a/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R b/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
index 149dd7ae5df46..39e0cb5fa8b0c 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
@@ -1205,6 +1205,15 @@ setMethod("join",
             dataFrame(sdf)
           })
 
+#' rdname merge
+#' aliases join
+setMethod("merge",
+          signature(x = "DataFrame", y = "DataFrame"),
+          function(x, y, joinExpr = NULL, joinType = NULL) {
+            join(x, y, joinExpr, joinType)
+          })
+
+
 #' UnionAll
 #'
 #' Return a new DataFrame containing the union of rows in this DataFrame