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The aim of this article is to outline a planned, large-scale, interdisciplinary research project of Cracow’s urban onymy. The accepted methodology for the diachronic and synchronic description and interpretation of urban names takes into account linguistic, sociological, historic and anthropo- logical perspectives. This methodology will allow this category of proper names to be regarded as a social communicative tool, as well as a cultural heritage preserving the history of the city, and the memory of its inhabitants. It will also be seen as a source that documents the geographic-topograph- ical past of the city, and/or the human activity within the economic and culture-created sphere. The more complex elaboration on Cracow urbanonymy in the form of a monograph and an electronic dictionary consisting of legal, semi-legal and colloquial names, aims to illustrate and preserve the history and traditions of the centuries-old and multicultural city. Its purpose is to show the stability, changeability, variability and decline of proper names, as well as their growth. The sociological outlook additionally emphasizes the role of nomina propria in the acquirement of space and orientation in Cracow, as well as in the search for, or construction of, individual or collective identities among the inhabitants of large agglomerations.