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Pharaoh profiles:
Akhenaten
| Alexander the Great
| Cleopatra VII
| Hatshepsut
| Ramesses
the Great |
Tutankhamun
| Tuthmosis III
To the Ancient Egyptians, the name was an
essential element of each and every human individual.
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The
name was regarded as a living part of each human being. A child had to be
named immediately at birth, otherwise it was believed that he or she would
not properly come into existence. The symbolic importance of the name also
meant that its removal from monuments or statuary would erase the memory
and existence of that person.
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Just like today, personal names often
followed a fashion where individuals were named after a particular deity
that either happened to be pre-eminent at that period, or was perhaps of
local importance. Some names are simple, such as Neferet, meaning "beautiful
woman" whilst others form statements, such as in Rehotep, meaning
"Re is satisfied".
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Egyptian rulers had a unique combination of
five royal names.
From the time of the Middle Kingdom, a pharaoh
would enjoy five different royal names. The first name would be pharaoh's actual
birth name, but the other four would be bestowed upon him when he succeeded the
throne. Most of the names that we use for pharaohs today are their birth names.
On our dedicated PHARAOH pages, we also include each individual pharaoh's throne
name.
The sequence of the five royal names was as follows:
| Name |
Accompanying
Title |
| Horus name |
Horus |
| Nebti or Two Ladies |
He of the Two
Ladies (Wadjet and Nekhbet) |
| Golden Horus |
Golden Horus |
| Throne name or
prenomen |
He of the
Sedge and the Bee (king of Upper and Lower Egypt) |
| Birth name or nomen |
Son of
Re |
So for instance, Tutankhamun's royal names would be as
follows:
| Horus name |
Ka-nakht tut-mesut "Strong bull, fitting from created forms" |
| Nebti or Two Ladies |
Nefer-hepu segereh-tawy sehetep-netjeru nebu "Dynamic of laws,
who calms the Two Lands, who propitiates all the gods" |
| Golden Horus |
Wetjes-khau sehetep-netjeru "Who displays the regalia, who
propitiates all the gods" |
| Throne name or
prenomen |
Nesu-bity Nebkheperu-re "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of
the manifestations of Re" |
| Birth name or nomen |
Tut-ankh-aten "Living image of Aten". |
Tutankhamun later changed his original birth name to his
more commonly known adopted name: Sa-re Tutankhamun (heqa-iunu-shema) "Son of
Re, living image of Amun, (ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis)"
Back in the days of antiquity
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Before the 4th Dynasty,
the pharaoh was usually
known simply by his Horus Name. The name would be written in a "serekh"
panel, with the Horus falcon standing on top. The first known "serekh"
appears on the Narmer Palette, which represents the beginning of Ancient
Egyptian history.
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Occasionally in the early dynasties, the king
might have secondary titles. The "Nebti" sign of the "Two
Ladies" is used in the 1st Dynasty by Hor-Aha, but not as a part of his
royal titles. In fact it wasn't until the 12th Dynasty that the "Nebti"
title became a standard element of the royal name sequence.
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Introducing the Cartouche
 The Cartouche
is a representation of an oval loop of rope which is tied at the ends. Inside
the oval loop are the hieroglyphs which form the pharaoh's royal names. Snefru,
builder of the Bent and Red pyramids at Dahshur, was the first to introduce the
cartouche in the 4th Dynasty. The cartouche subsequently replaced the serekh, or
Horus name in identifying the king. During the 5th Dynasty, Neferirkare
introduced a second cartouche: the first cartouche contained his throne name,
given to him upon his accession to the throne, and the second contained his
birth name.
Although the five royal
names and titles were a necessary requirement for the king, they are rarely
portrayed together except during the coronation of the pharaoh. The names most
frequently used are the Horus name, throne name and the birth name.
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