Socio-onomastic research is carried out in the study of all kinds of names: personal names, place names, commercial names, and other names. Usually socio-onomastic research uses spoken data, which differentiates it from traditional onomastics in which literary material has been dominant. In the research into personal names, the core topics include the study of the name-giving grounds for first names and the distribution of first-name innovations. Similarly, the analysis of different terms of address and epithets are central to socio-onomastic research. This essay addresses socio-onomastic research on place names in more detail in order to illustrate what socio-onomastic research can contribute. The provided examples include Finnish names, since socio-onomastic research into place names has recently been exceptionally versatile in Finland. At present, research within socio-onomastics is most definitely needed at least in the following fields. In the socio-onomastic study of place names, rural names have already been in focus for decades, but urban names still lack comprehensive research. In what ways are place names – both official and unofficial – used in multi-layered urban environments and what is the meaning of these names in the construction of urban identities? How are place names used in multicultural and multilingual urban surroundings? The same question applies to the study of personal names: how are they used in multilingual contexts? On what grounds do parents from different cultures give names to their children? The research into commercial names is still rather scarce due to the young age of the field, and socio-onomastic studies are very few. One of the most interesting questions would be to investigate the attitudes and stances people have towards commercial names and how people talk about commercial products and businesses in actual language use. Finally, socio-onomastic research should pay more attention to overall language use and compare the use of names to other kinds of language use. Are there discrepancies between the use of names and other language use or do they comply with each other? Socio-onomastics is – or at least should be – relevant for name planning, as well. Name planning issues recommendations and instructions about giving and using names in official contexts. For example, name planners design the street names of our towns. In this work it is of major importance that we know how people actually talk about streets and other urban places and how they feel about the names.