The present article inquires into peculiar problems related to the translation into the Russian language proper names occurring in the poetry of Catullus. Although the main role of names is to indicate single objects, the proper names can bear the additional connotations, for example, to talk about the status of the carrier name; moreover there are discussed the charactonyms and the names forming part of the tropes. The choice of the Russian version of the name, related whith the literary predilections of the translators and their views on the poetry of Catullus is considered on the example of translations of 18–20 centuries.