Full Idea
Unlike descriptions, names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate.
Gist of Idea
Names are meaningless unless there is an object which they designate
Source
Bertrand Russell (My Philosophical Development [1959], Ch.14)
Book Reference
Russell,Bertrand: 'My Philosophical Development' [Routledge 1993], p.125
A Reaction
This interests Russell because of its ontological implications. If we reduce language to names, we can have a pure ontology of 'objects'. We need a system for saying whether a description names something - which is his theory of definite descriptions.