If you really want it to look more traditional, you could do: NT.new = lambda **kwargs: NT(42, 'foo')._replace(**kwargs) Now you can make NT objects like

If you really want it to look more traditional, you could do: NT.new = lambda **kwargs: NT(42, 'foo')._replace(**kwargs) Now you can make NT objects like so: nt1 = NT.new() nt2 = NT.new(b='bar') You can call it something else if calling it "new" makes you feel weird. (I'd call it something else, but naming things is hard.)