Please explain the end of Tosefta Eduyot

Question

At the end of Tosefta Eduyot 3:4 it states:

One who has students, they call him rabbi. When his students were forgotten, they called him rabban. When both of these are forgotten, they call him by his name.

What does this mean? There are many examples of Rabbis with the appellation Raban (such as Gamliel, Shimon etc.) whose students were not forgotten. The same is true of those who are called by name such Hillel and Shammai.

In short, please explain the end of Tosefta Eduyot.

Answer 1

The חסדי דוד wishes to make a correction to the text, and rather when forgotten נשתכחו, he corrects it to when his students receive ordination נסמכו, and goes on to explain, that first the teacher is referred to as Rabbi. When the students are ordained, they are now referred to as Rabbi and the teacher as Raban. When the new Rabbis now ordain students, the 3rd generation is referred to as Rabbi, the 2nd as Raban, and the 1st as just their names.