chunk: The subject of Cratylus is the correctness of names (περὶ ὀνομάτων ὀρθότητος), in other words, it is a critique on the subject of naming (Baxter).
  When discussing a ὄνομα  (onoma ) and how it would relate to its subject, Socrates compares the original creation of a word to the work of an artist. An artist uses color to express the essence of his subject in a painting. In much the same way, the creator of words uses letters containing certain sounds to express the essence of a word's subject. There is a letter that is best for soft things, one for liquid things, and so on. He comments;
  the best possible way to speak consists in using names all (or most) of which are like the things they name (that is, are appropriate to them), while the worst is to use the opposite kind of names.