This introduction is designed to give both students of German and other languages and all those interested in onomastics a grounding in the central issues addressed by this discipline and the research results it has come up with. It covers both the more traditional areas of the subject (the historical and etymological study of the names of places, persons, lakes and rivers, etc.) and the more recent interest in sociological and psychological aspects (fashionable forenames, the learning and retention of names). Reference is also made to legal questions (married couples' names, brand names, company names). Research developments in the eastern federal states of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are given due coverage. The relation of proper names to the language system and the pragmatic aspects of their use in texts are dealt with synchronically.