Linguists often highlight the “distinctive” function of the proper noun and describe its referent as the occurrence of a conceptual category. However, this is not due to the fact that the x named is, or can be, categorized that its proper noun necessarily signifies this categorization. This observation is the starting point for the relativization of the occurential hypothesis, which is carried out in four stages. We attempt to show that the proper noun best refers to a free occurrence, awaiting categorization; that the categorising nouns present in certain proper nouns do not constitute a veritable counter-argument; that proper nouns unify internal occurrences, and finally that (la) Lune, (le) Soleil, etc. can be considered, within this framework, as proper nouns.