Dauzat and Negre have treated the place-names of France in depth but much remains to be done.

In particular, a nation-wide survey of the first recorded names is lacking. Here only the oldest names, from the unknown substrata through the Celtic and the Latin to the Frankish, are treated. To further reduce the scope, only certain regions and classes of names are included. Breton and Basque have been left aside as being too particular for a general treatment.