Meaning Theory and Naming Theory. It is the contention of this article that Russell's views on meaning and reference should be approached from the standpoint of the nomen/ nominatum relationship, which The Principles of Mathematies regarded as paradigmatic for · the more generalquestion of how language is tied to reality. At the same time, Russell's twofold account of naming provides a good illustration of the kind of espistemological requirements the principle of acquaintance places upon the philosophy of language. The final section of the article tries to appraise Russell's contribution to the semantic theory of proper names, beyond his well-known thesis that «ordinary» proper names are truncated or telescoped descriptions.