In this paper, presented at an APA colloquium in Boston on December 28
, 1994, it is argued that Ruth Barcan Marcus' 1961 article on ''Modali
ties and Intensional Languages'' originated many of the key ideas of t
he New Theory of Reference that have often been attributed to Saul Kri
pke and others. For example, Marcus argued that names are directly ref
erential and are not equivalent to contingent descriptions, that names
are rigid designators, and that identity sentences with co-referring
names are necessary if true. She also first presented the modal argume
nt that names are directly referential, the epistemic argument that na
mes are directly referential, and the argument that there are a poster
iori necessities.