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Page 1: PERSONAL NAMES.
Some names could be given both to men and women. "iaH-ms" (Ahmose - Iah [the moon] is born) for instance was used for a multitude of princes and princesses of the late 17th dynasty. The resulting confusion is sometimes cleared up by the rather arbitrarily used appendice to the name of a (silent) hieroglyph of a male or female figure. Next to completely identical unisex names, many other male and female names shared similar translations and grammatical constructions. In those cases, most often a distinction between the male and female versions can be made by the presence of the feminine ending ".t", the masculine article "pA" or the feminine article "tA". Examples are the earlier mentioned female "nfr.t" (opposed to the male version "nfr") and "pA-n-imn" (Penamun - The one [He] of Amun) versus "tA-n.t-imn" (Tentamun - The one [She] of Amun). Names could also hold a reference to a person's relatives. The nouns "sA" (son) and "sA.t" (daughter) for instance appear regularly as parts of a name. An example is "sA.t-kA-ms" (Satkamose - Daughter of Kamose). This kind of reference to a family relation could also be elevated to a religious level: names as "sA.t-imn" (Sitamun - Daughter of Amun) or "sA-nt" (Sineith - Son of Neith) obviously tied an individual closely to a selected deity. Such "familial" references to a preferred (and often local) deity were quite popular. They were so widespread that in many cases the actual name of the chosen god was no longer even explicitly included in a person's name. The "presence" of the concerned deity was considered self-evident instead. In those cases the god was either left entirely unmentioned or simply referred to as "nTr" (netjer - god) or "nb" (neb - lord).
Next to the practice of giving some individuals a "rn-nfr", Ancient Egyptians regularly used nicknames. Called a "rn-nDs" or literally a "small name", these nicknames were used most often to shorten a longer name or to highlight a specific characteristic of the concerned individual. The use of nicknames and abbreviations was however so widespread in Ancient Egypt that in modern times it has often become difficult to establish whether a person’s mentioned name was such a nickname ("rn-nDs") or simply a regular name ("rn"). Names like "mri-imn" (Meryamun) and "mri-nth" (Meryneith) for instance could be shortened to nicknames as "mri" (Mery) or "mayA" (Maya), while those were equally used as independent regular names. The same goes for the abbreviation of a name like "nfr-titi" (Nefertiti) into "tiy" (Tiye), also used as a (fairly common) regular name. Names could be followed by an epithet, the so-called "rn-mAa" or "true name". Often frequented were epithets like "Aa" (the "great" or eldest) and "nDs" (Nedjes - the "small" or youngest) to clarify a birth order. Epithets could (like regular names) also include a direct reference to a person's relatives: a father's name was then preceded by the phrase "ir-n" (conceived by) and a mother's name by "ms-n" (born of). Young children sometimes received a “junior” epithet in the form of the masculine "pA-Sri" (-pasheri) or feminine "tA-Sri.t" (-tasherit), basically meaning "the little one". The best known bearers of such an epithet were King Akhenaten’s granddaughters Meritaten-tasherit and Neferneferuaten-tasherit.
During the periods following the reigns of respectively Queen Hatshepsut and King Akhenaten, a great deal of antipathy was their share. As a result, their names on the monuments they erected were systematically targeted, hacked out or written over. This often (anachronistically) so-called practice of "damnatio memoriae" showed as no other the conviction that the removal of a name was equivalent to the destruction of the memory (and thereby the very existence) of the person it had represented. A more positive example of the importance attributed to an individual's name can be found in the frequent use of representations of the King's name, replacing the actual image of the King himself. As such the King's existence and power were apparent by the presence of his name alone. The limestone fragment to the right (from "Pharaohs of the Sun") shows the Overseer of Works User-Seth ("wsr-stX" - Seth is powerful) kneeling in adoration before the throne name (in this case left intact) of King Akhenaten. The text states that he is "praising the living Aten" - in other words the King, being the Aten's representative on earth. In relation to both the practice of "damnatio memoriae" and having the King's name represent the King itself, another noticebale use of the King's name should be mentioned. It was a frequent custom for a King to "usurp" the statuary or reliefs of an earlier King. By placing his own name on an object, fashioned for someone else, the object was confiscated and imbued with the essence and personality of its new owner. While such an object may not have resembled or fit the usurper in any way, his name was deemed enough to make the object his. This process of usurpation nowadays seems respectless, but it actually fits in perfectly with the Ancient Egyptian tradition of "renewing" an object and breathing new life into it. Under certain circumstances a person's name could also be altered. In the Harem Conspiracy papyri, dating from the reign of Ramesses III, this is most obvious. Following the attempt (or at least the plot) to murder the King, the papyri describe the trial of those involved. Apart from the chief defendant Tiy, one of Ramesses' minor queens, most of the accused bear names that clearly were not theirs at birth. Following their terrible crime, they were given names to emphasise their wicked personality and to underline the dislike the gods had for them. Two defendants for instance are called Mesedsure ("msD-sw-ra" - Ra hates him) and Binemwese ("bin-m-wAs.t" - Evil in Waset [Thebes]). This rare event is a perfect show of how closely a person's name and identity were considered to be connected. - Rita E. Freed, Yvonne J. Markowitz, Sue H. D'Auria. Erik Hornung. Ian Shaw (editor). Bruce G. Trigger, B. J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, A. B. Lloyd. W. Vivian Davies.
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le.© Bart Van Assche |
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