 This brings us to a circularity objection brought against the metalinguistic view (Strawson 1950: 340; Kripke 1980: 68–70). One way of explicating having a name spelled A-l-i-c-e is to say that there is a linguistic item—a specific name with that spelling—referring to one. Thus (12) says in effect that there are two individuals in the class referred to by such a name. This would be consistent with an account on which specific names (unlike proper nominals occurring in contexts like (12)) do not have a meaning, their reference being determined by use instead. More generally, this explication treats the reference of specific names as the more basic notion, and the predicate meaning of the proper nominal as defined in terms of such reference.