What does name mean in C#?

Silly question here. I've tried googling this but it keeps stripping out the characters I'm searching on. When using C#, what does the <> mean? As in, . It seems like it's being used to inherit the class it's declaring in the <>, but if it is that, couldn't you just inherit it at the start of the class your working in? On the other hand, if it's creating a new Contacts object, couldn't you just say Contacts contacts = new Contacts();? Like I said, I'm not sure what it does =/ Any help?