Ageneral description of name-giving and a comprehensive inventory of persons and names in the ›early years‹ of the Portuguese-occupied archipelago of Madeira, plus anthroponymic statistics. After its discovery in 1418, the uninhabited archipelago became a Portuguese settlement. Given its high strategic and economic significance (Age of Discovery; sugar) Madeira quickly attracted traders and settlers from all over Europe. This new society is recorded by name in numerous demographic and administrative documents. The present publication provides both historians (inventory of persons) and onomasiologists (inventory of names, statistical records, general description) with an important resource not hitherto available in this form, which additionally supplies important general insights on Portuguese society in the 15th and 16th centuries.