 Do natural kinds have essences? When discussing kinds and essences we need to distinguish two quite different claims. The first claim is that the kind a particular belongs to is essential to that particular: if a belongs to kind K, then it is an essential property of a that it belongs to K. The second claim is that the kinds themselves have essential properties: for each kind K there is some property Φ of the kind such that it is essential to K that Φ(K). What is the logical relation between these two claims? The first claim may be strictly consistent with the denial of the second, but it may be difficult to motivate the first without having reason to accept the second. Would one think that some object’s nature requires it to belong to kind K without thinking that there is some distinctive (essential) property characteristic of all Ks?