The royal titulary or royal protocol is the standard naming convention taken by the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

s of ancient Egypt. It symbolised worldly power and holy might, also acting as a sort of mission statement for the duration of a monarch's reign (although sometimes it even changed during the reign). The full titulary, consisting of five names, did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom but remained in use as late as the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

Origins

In order that the pharaoh, who held divine office, could be linked to the people and the gods, special epithets were created for them at their accession to the throne. These titles also served to demonstrate one's qualities and link them to the terrestrial realm. The five names were developed over the centuries beginning with the

Horus name The Horus name is the oldest known and used crest of ancient Egyptian rulers. It belongs to the " great five names" of an Egyptian pharaoh. However, modern Egyptologists and linguists are starting to prefer the more neutral term: the "serekh na ...

. This name identified the figure as a representative of the god Horus. The

Nebty name The Nebty name (also called the Two-Ladies-name) was one of the " great five names" used by Egyptian pharaohs. It was also one of the oldest royal titles. The modern term "Two-Ladies-name" is a simple derivation from the translation of the Egyptia ...

was the second part of the royal titular of Upper and Lower Egypt. This name placed the king under the protection of two female deities,

Nekhbet Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron d ...

and

Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...

and began sometime towards the end of the First Dynasty as a reference to "The one who belongs to Upper and

Lower Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also *Nizhny Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́� ...

Egypt", along with mention of the

Two Ladies In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" ( egy, nbtj, sometimes anglicized ''Nebty'') was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unificati ...

. Beginning sometime in the

Fourth Dynasty of Egypt The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

, the Gold Falcon name (sometimes called the Horus of Gold) was created. The last two names of the king, the

prenomen The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birt ...

and the nomen, were generally depicted within the circular, roped

cartouche In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...

of the king (eventually the cartouche would contain all royal names, including the queen and the royal children) and were known as the Throne name and the Son of Re name.

Horus name

𓅃𓊁

The

is the oldest form of the pharaoh's name, originating in prehistoric Egypt. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title.Toby A. H. Wilkinson: ''Early Dynastic Egypt''. Routledge, London/New York 1999, , p. 74-75. The Horus name was usually written in a

serekh In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a serekh is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by (usually) the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The serekh was the earliest conven ...

, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in

hieroglyphs A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...

inside this representation of a palace. Typically an image of the falcon god Horus was perched on top of or beside it. At least one Egyptian ruler, the

Second Dynasty The Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt (or Dynasty II, c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC) is the latter of the two dynasties of the Egyptian Archaic Period, when the seat of government was centred at Thinis. It is most known for its last ruler, K ...

pharaoh

Seth-Peribsen Seth-Peribsen (also known as Ash-Peribsen, Peribsen and Perabsen) is the serekh name of an early Egyptian monarch (pharaoh), who ruled during the Second Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC). His chronological position within this dyn ...

, used an image of the god Set instead of Horus, perhaps signifying an internal religious division within the country. He was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Set and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh. By the time of the New Kingdom, the Horus name was often written without the enclosing serekh.

Nebty ("two ladies") name

G16 The

(lit. "

two ladies In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" ( egy, nbtj, sometimes anglicized ''Nebty'') was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unificati ...

") was associated with the so-called "

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

" goddesses of

Upper and Lower Egypt In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the dual ...

: *

, patron deity of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

, represented by a

vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

, and *

, patron deity of Lower Egypt, represented by a cobra. The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet, though it only became a fully independent title by the

Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

. This particular name was not typically framed by a

or serekh, but always begins with the hieroglyphs of a vulture and cobra resting upon two baskets, the dual noun "nebty".

Horus of Gold

G8 Also known as the Golden Horus name, this form of the pharaoh's name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold. The meaning of this particular title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his uncle Set, as the symbol for gold can be taken to mean that Horus was "superior to his foes". Gold also was strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaoh's eternal Horus name. Similar to the Nebty name, this particular name typically was not framed by a cartouche or serekh.

Throne name (''prenomen'')

Luxor, hieroglyphs on an obelisk inside the Temple of Hatshepsut, Egypt, Oct 2004

M23:t-L2:t The pharaoh's throne name, the first of the two names written inside a

, usually accompanied the title '' nsw-bity'' (''nsw(t)-bjt(j)''), traditionally interpreted as " eof sedge ndbee" and often translated for convenience as "King of Upper and of Lower Egypt". (The sedge and the bee symbolised Upper and Lower Egypt, respectively, although recent research has thrown this interpretation into doubt. Schenkel, Wolfgang (1986) “Das Wort für König (von Oberägypten)” in ''Göttinger Miszellen'', 94, pp. 57-73. ) The epithet ''nb tꜣwy'', "Lord of

the Two Lands In Egyptian history, the Upper and Lower Egypt period (also known as The Two Lands) was the final stage of prehistoric Egypt and directly preceded the unification of the realm. The conception of Egypt as the Two Lands was an example of the dua ...

", referring to the valley and delta regions of Egypt, often occurs as well.

Personal name (''nomen'')

G39-N5:.- This was the name given at birth. The name itself was preceded by the title "Son of Ra", written with the hieroglyph of a duck (''za''), a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definiti ...

for the word meaning "son" (''za''), adjacent to an image of the sun, a hieroglyph for the chief solar deity Ra. It was first introduced to the set of royal titles in the

Fourth Dynasty The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...

and emphasizes the king's role as a representative of the solar god Ra. For women who became pharaoh, the preceding title was interpreted as "daughter" also. Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, adding ordinals (e.g. "II", "III") to distinguish between different individuals bearing the same name.

Examples of the full titulary

Senusret I

In the Middle Kingdom, the full titulary was sometimes written in a single cartouche, as in this example from

Senusret I Senusret I (Middle Egyptian: z-n-wsrt; /suʀ nij ˈwas.ɾiʔ/) also anglicized as Sesostris I and Senwosret I, was the second pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC (1920 BC to 1875 BC), and was one of the mo ...

, from

Beni Hasan Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) ( ar, بني حسن) is an ancient Egyptian cemetery. It is located approximately to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Mem ...

Hatshepsut

The full titulary of Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, af ...

, providing a guide to pronunciation and its equivalent meaning and showing the differences since this pharaoh is a woman, is as follows, *Horus name: ''Wesretkau'', "Mighty of Kas" *Nebty name: ''Wadjrenput'', "She of the Two Ladies, Flourishing of years" *Golden Horus: ''Netjeretkhau'', "Divine of appearance" (''Netjeret'' is the feminine form of ''netery'' meaning 'godly' or 'divine', and ''khau'', 'appearances') *Praenomen: ''Maatkare'', "Truth a'atis the Ka of Re" *Nomen: ''Khnumt-Amun Hatshepsut'', "Joined with Amun, Foremost of Noble Ladies"

Thutmose III

The full titulary of Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh

Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 2 ...

, providing a guide to pronunciation and its equivalent meaning, is as follows *Horus name: ''Kanakht Khaemwaset'', "Horus Mighty Bull, Arising in Thebes" *Nebty name: ''Wahnesytmireempet'', "He of the Two Ladies, Enduring in kingship like Re in heaven" *Golden Horus: ''Sekhempahtydjeserkhaw'', "Horus of Gold Powerful of strength, Sacred of appearance" *Praenomen: ''Menkheperre'', "He of the

Sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

and the Bee, Enduring of form is Re" *Nomen: ''Thutmose Neferkheperu'', "Son of Ra, Thutmose, beautiful of forms"

References

Bibliography

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External links

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on Digital Egypt {{DEFAULTSORT:Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary * Ancient Egyptian language *