Abstract
Up to now, proper names are mainly seen as linguistic signs with some special systemic features. This paper wants to show that there are other possibilities to approach the theory of names. They can be seen as symbols used in a speech act, which means that every utterance of a name represents a single speech act of namegiving, even with those names, which are already known by the partners of communication. A name is what is accepted as a name in a language community. This tautology is not just a word game, but situates a proper name in the system of speech acts at the moment of communication.