The article is a review of the newly published Atlas of German Family Names. Vol. 1. The authors determine the place of this publication in the history of anthroponymic research as a completely new type of map book. Its results are achieved with the aid of a special software, that turns out to be a mighty means of creating distributional maps of present-day German family names on the basis of digitally stored phone connections (CD-ROM). – Within the scope of grammatical and lexical issues number 1 in a series of volumes to be published deals with the vocalism of family names. After summarising the structure of the book and the new impetus it gives not only to anthroponymy but, beyond that, to further linguistic and historical disciplines, the authors also point to some shortcomings that should be avoided in the following volumes. On the whole, the atlas is appreciated as an important step to a deeper insight into the growth and linguistic structure of both widespread and, as to the respective problem, typical German family names.