The international and interdisciplinary colloquium conducted by the research group "Nomen et gens" is concerned with the collection, inventory, interpretation and evaluation of personal names from the age of the migration of the peoples up to Charlemagne. The present volume continues from the 1997 publication Nomen et gens. The papers address the historical and philological problems arising from the conception and compilation of a dictionary of proper names. The first part deals with developments in research into persons and personal names, prosopography and dictionaries of names in recent times. Part two provides space for fundamental reflections on methodology.