One of the central functions of language is to enable speakers to communicate about the world. For this to be possible, it seems that at some level language should be able to “hook on to” reality. Such level (if any) is often described as the referential level (cf. Martí, Chapter 12, this volume), and linguistic terms operating at that level are called referring terms. Among the latter, philosophers typically distinguish (as to so-called kind terms, which refer to kinds rather than to particulars, cf. Fernández Moreno, on natural kind terms, Chapter 15, this volume) those which not only hook on to reality, but in addition accomplish that by referring to basic elements of reality, namely objects/individuals (in contrast with, e.g., the substance referred to by the natural kind term water). This is the class of singular terms, whose paradigmatic exemplars are often taken to be proper names.