diff --git a/pkg/domain/infra/abi/play.go b/pkg/domain/infra/abi/play.go
index 355cb2f072..1ec71f9b5c 100644
--- a/pkg/domain/infra/abi/play.go
+++ b/pkg/domain/infra/abi/play.go
@@ -583,6 +583,19 @@ func (ic *ContainerEngine) playKubePod(ctx context.Context, podName string, podY
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Add the the original container names from the kube yaml as aliases for it. This will allow network to work with
+	// both just containerName as well as containerName-podName.
+	// In the future, we want to extend this to the CLI as well, where the name of the container created will not have
+	// the podName appended to it, but this is a breaking change and will be done in podman 5.0
+	ctrNameAliases := make([]string, 0, len(podYAML.Spec.Containers))
+	for _, container := range podYAML.Spec.Containers {
+		ctrNameAliases = append(ctrNameAliases, container.Name)
+	}
+	for k, v := range podSpec.PodSpecGen.Networks {
+		v.Aliases = append(v.Aliases, ctrNameAliases...)
+		podSpec.PodSpecGen.Networks[k] = v
+	}
+
 	if serviceContainer != nil {
 		podSpec.PodSpecGen.ServiceContainerID = serviceContainer.ID()
 	}
@@ -695,6 +708,7 @@ func (ic *ContainerEngine) playKubePod(ctx context.Context, podName string, podY
 		if _, ok := ctrNames[container.Name]; ok {
 			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("the pod %q is invalid; duplicate container name %q detected", podName, container.Name)
 		}
+
 		ctrNames[container.Name] = ""
 		pulledImage, labels, err := ic.getImageAndLabelInfo(ctx, cwd, annotations, writer, container, options)
 		if err != nil {
diff --git a/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go b/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
index d9bb63c204..97d9e32152 100644
--- a/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/play_kube_test.go
@@ -5006,4 +5006,30 @@ spec:
 		Expect(hostIpcNS).To(Equal(ctrIpcNS))
 	})
 
+	It("podman play kube with ctrName should be in network alias", func() {
+		ctrName := "test-ctr"
+		ctrNameInKubePod := ctrName + "-pod-" + ctrName
+		session1 := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"run", "-d", "--name", ctrName, ALPINE, "top"})
+		session1.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(session1).Should(Exit(0))
+
+		outputFile := filepath.Join(podmanTest.RunRoot, "pod.yaml")
+		kube := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"kube", "generate", ctrName, "-f", outputFile})
+		kube.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(kube).Should(Exit(0))
+
+		rm := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"pod", "rm", "-t", "0", "-f", ctrName})
+		rm.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(rm).Should(Exit(0))
+
+		play := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"kube", "play", outputFile})
+		play.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(play).Should(Exit(0))
+
+		inspect := podmanTest.Podman([]string{"inspect", ctrNameInKubePod})
+		inspect.WaitWithDefaultTimeout()
+		Expect(inspect).Should(Exit(0))
+		Expect(inspect.OutputToString()).To(ContainSubstring("\"Aliases\": [ \"" + ctrName + "\""))
+	})
+
 })