Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
The very term. And they are there to "snug down" the belt to keep the buckle and tab (the part the belt buckles through) in place. On really expensive belts the buckle and tab were two separate items (usually of silver) and were removed when the belt was cleaned or polished. Nowadays the buckles tend to be chrome plated brass and the tab is a bit of twisted wire stitched in place on the belt. Two keepers are provided; one to locate the buckle and the other to provide visual balance.
I have two black belts that have this fold back adjustment and came with tow keepers each. The keepers are very similar leather but the belts are very different in quality. What I do with the keepers, and I really don't care if it's what they were designed for or not, is to use them to keep my sporran belt in place, and the right hand one also holds my key ring, when I don't put the keys in the sporran.

I don't put the keepers on each side of the buckle, as they are un-needed. But they do function very well to keep the sporran strap positioned! My leather keepers then tend to be on each side of my body, and maybe a scosh to the rear.

Works for me, and I like the functionality of it.