Method for determining communication device names within an industrial automation system, in which - a diagnostic station is used to retrieve configuration data relating to a selected communication device, the communication device name of which is to be determined, wherein the configuration data comprise a Universally Unique Identifier corresponding to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, which is derived from the communication device name as a hash value, and a communication network address of the selected communication device as well as a communication network address and a subnetwork identifier of a local configuration unit of a configuration data relay, which configuration unit is assigned to a subnetwork comprising the selected communication device and forwards configuration requests and/or configuration data for a configuration server, - the configuration data relating to the selected communication device are retrieved by the diagnostic station from records in a configuration database assigned to the configuration server and/or to an engineering system or from data traffic for transmitting the configuration to the selected communication device, - on the basis of the retrieved configuration data, the diagnostic station transmits a name query datagram to a diagnostic server assigned to the subnetwork comprising the selected communication device, - on the basis of the Universally Unique Identifier and/or the communication network address of the selected communication device, the diagnostic server initiates an inverse address resolution query which is based on information relating to assignments between device names and communication network addresses distributed within the subnetwork comprising the selected communication device according to a name resolution protocol, - the communication network address of the selected communication device is mapped to its communication device name by the inverse address resolution query. - a diagnostic station is used to retrieve configuration data relating to a selected communication device, the communication device name of which is to be determined, wherein the configuration data comprise a Universally Unique Identifier corresponding to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, which is derived from the communication device name as a hash value, and a communication network address of the selected communication device as well as a communication network address and a subnetwork identifier of a local configuration unit of a configuration data relay, which configuration unit is assigned to a subnetwork comprising the selected communication device and forwards configuration requests and/or configuration data for a configuration server, - the configuration data relating to the selected communication device are retrieved by the diagnostic station from records in a configuration database assigned to the configuration server and/or to an engineering system or from data traffic for transmitting the configuration to the selected communication device, - on the basis of the retrieved configuration data, the diagnostic station transmits a name query datagram to a diagnostic server assigned to the subnetwork comprising the selected communication device, - on the basis of the Universally Unique Identifier and/or the communication network address of the selected communication device, the diagnostic server initiates an inverse address resolution query which is based on information relating to assignments between device names and communication network addresses distributed within the subnetwork comprising the selected communication device according to a name resolution protocol, - the communication network address of the selected communication device is mapped to its communication device name by the inverse address resolution query.