NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL KINGS OF EGYPT
(including the Roman Emperors)
During the Early Dynastic Period, the chief name (Horus-name) of the king was written in a
rectangular frame called a serekh, The bottom part ofthe frame contained a design of panelling,
and the whole was surmounted by a figure of a falcon-the god Horus, In the case of Peribsen
of the Second Dynasty, the Seth-animal replaced the falcon, while the serekh of Khasekhemwy
was surmounted by both falcon and Seth-animal. A second name sometimes accompanied the
Horus-name, or was used independently; it was introduced by one or both of the two titles
Wa ‘King of Upper and Lower Egypt’ and “The Two Ladies’,
FIRST DYNASTY
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Sanakhte Djoser Sekhemkhet KhabaFrom the Old Kingdom the Egyptian king normally possessed five names: the Horus-name, the
“Two Ladies’-name, the Golden Horus-name (of uncertain origin), the prenomen (preceded by
thetitle +, translated usually “King of Upper and Lower Egypt’) and the nomen (preceded by
the title GQ ‘Son of Re’). The nomen was first used by kings of the Fifth Dynasty who were
specially devoted to the worship of Re. Prenomens and nomens were regularly enclosed
within ovals called cartouches, which depict loops of rope with tied ends. By having his name
so enclosed, the king possibly wished to convey pictorially that he was ruler of all ‘that which
is encircled by the sun’, From the late Eighteenth Dynasty onwards additional epithets were
regularly introduced into the cartouches. In times when the claim to the throne of all Egypt
was disputed kings sometimes avoided the WZ. -title and used J, ‘the good god’. The
names within cartouches are those by which a King is normally identified.
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