kings' names

The kings had multiple names, the number of which varied with time. The classical titelature is five names long. These names are :

the Horus name

is the older name for Egyptian kings. It was written enclosed in a panel called a serekh, which represented a palace. The word ``serekh'' means ``make to know'', and thus indicate that the panel is a proclamation of the king's name.

is the Horus name of Ramesses II; it means

strong bull loved by (or loving) Maat

The two mistress name

links the king to the patron goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nekhbet and Ouadjet. It is indicated by the signs , and reads nebty so in this example

which is the nbty-name of Ramses II:

The two mistress, the protector of Egypt, he who strikes the foreign countries

The golden Horus name

is another name, preceded by

still Ramesses :

The Golden Horus, powerful by his years of victory

The King of Lower and Upper Egypt name

is one of the two mostly used names of the king. Its is preceded by the signs which read ``king of Upper and Lower Egypt'', and is enclosed in a cartouche. Ancient Egyptian usually used this name for their king.

Ramesses for ever:

The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ouser-Maat-Re Setep-en-Re (Powerful by the Maat of Re, the chosen of Re)

The son of Re

is the ``birth name'', that is, the name of the king when he was still a prince. It is this name we use when we speak of ``Ramses II'' or ``Tuthmosis III''. It is preceded by and enclosed in a cartouche. writes the word ``son'', because the name of the duck and the word ``son'' have the same consonants in Egyptian, and spells ``Re'', the sun-god.

And, at last, Ramses:

The son of Re, Ra-mes-su meri-Amon (It is Re who gave birth to him, the one whom Amon loves)

And here is the full titelature for Ramses II:

Actually, the titelature of a king could change, not only during his reign, but also, especially when it came to the various epithets, according to the place. The titelature was some kind of a political program.

An interesting example is Sethy the first, whose name Sethy refers to the god Seth. As the relations between Seth and Osiris are quite bad since the murder of the latter by the former, in Osirian contexts, (for example, in Sethy's tomb) Sethy's name is written with the sign for Osiris instead of , which is Seth.