Repositories vs DAOs

"Are Repository and DAOs the same thing with a different name?". The answer is not direct. Because they overlap a lot. Repositories and DAOs are two solution styles for approaching the same problem, with some small differences.

1. DAOs are strictly tied to the underlying representation on a DBMS. The original specification is more generic, allowing for file-based persistence and the like. But the vast majority of DAOs are pointing to a DBMS. Moreover, commonly used persistence frameworks, such as Hibernate help a lot in managing database portability, so this is a smaller issue nowadays, than it used to be. As a result the DAO concept eventually downsized, to a "database access point" while Repositories are still intended to be generic.
2. Repositories provide a more abstract view over the underlying data model, providing an interface strictly coherent with the domain. DAOs might be implemented basically in many ways, but frameworks and code generation tools tend to put the focus on the data structure rather than on the domain model. This is sometimes a tiny issue, sometimes just a matter of style, but in large systems can degenerate in a severe maintenance problem.
3. Repositories enforce access to the persistence layer on a one-repository-per-aggregate basis, while DAOs are normally developed one-per-entity or one-per-table. So, repositories are more tied to the DDD concept of Aggregate Root and have a different granularity than DAOs. This definitely makes the most significant difference.

Somehow, the differences above are just a matter of taste, except for point 3. So objections are valid and discussion may result endless. But for now I'll just say that the two patterns are doing basically the same thing, although with different styles. There are differences, especially if approaching the matter from a DDD angle. What's left to say is if those differences are enough to make a choice between one pattern and another, or eventually to choose both.