The purpose of this article is to further the understanding of the nature and function of dwarves in Old Icelandic belief by an investigation of the names applied to them. I have therefore collected the dwarf-names, supplied meanings and etymologies, and classified the names by form and function. These names are scattered through the Fornaldarsögur, the Younger Edda and in various Eddic poems. Most of the names are in two versified lists; the shorter list in stanzas 10 to 16 of the V$ooluspá, the longer, called Dverga heiti, among the nafnaþulur. These two lists, which are derived from a common source, have a large number of names in common; the V$ooluspá has nine or ten that are not in the þulur, and the latter have a somewhat larger number which are not in the V$ooluspá. The various manuscripts show variant readings. All these readings are of interest to us, for the opinion of a scribe as to what is a suitable name for a dwarf may be just as valuable as the opinion of the man who composed the original.