Egyptian kings and queens names

Some of the first hieroglyphic texts a student or traveler learns are the famous egyptian rulers names, such as Ramses 2nd the Great or Tutankhamon. In this resource you will find a complete list of all the known name variants for all the egyptian kings and queens, sorted by dynasty.

Names included in the catalogue

The name variants themselves were extracted from several sources (mainly from BECKERATH (2009) and JOHNSON & PETTY, as well as from real artifacts and temples around Egypt).

Only the unique variants were included in this catalogue. Other variants including extra phonetic complements, or direction-related icons (i.e. S29 vs O34) were not included to avoid having a huge noisy amount of irrelevant or similar name variations.

For design reasons, all name variations are displayed in horizontal layout, and names that were originally written vertically were reconfigured for better grouping positions, although the original icons were kept as they were written rather than swapping them for possible horizontal vs vertical versions.

Horus Name

Also known as Serekh (srx). It was already in use in the Predynastic Era and it was a symbol of the king being the god Horus personification on Earth. During the Second Dynasty, the kings Peribsen and Khasekhemuy switched that name to Seth Name.

Two Ladies Name

Also known as Nebty (nb.ty). It was in use from Semerkhet (the First Dynasty), though it was not standarized as an independent name until Twelfth Dynasty. It was a symbol of king's ruleship over both Upper Egypt (symbolized by the vulpture Nekhbet goddess) and Lower Egypt (symbolized by the cobra Wadjet goddess).

Golden Horus Name

Also known as Hor Nebu (1r-nbw). It was in use from the Fourth Dynasty on, as a symbol of the deification of the king (according to the mythology, gods' flesh was done of gold).

Coronation Name (prenomen)

Also known as Nesut Bity (nsw-bi.ty) was given to the king during the coronation ceremonies. It was in use from the First Dynasty and it was a symbol of the unification of Upper Egypt (symbolized by the sedge) and the Lower Egypt (symbolized by the bee).

Birth Name (nomen)

Also known as Sa Ra (sA-Ra) was the name given to the king right after his birth. It was in use from mid Fourth Dynasty on, and it appeared as a consecuence of the kingship solarization.

Pyramid Name

It's appropiate to assume all egyptian pyramids were given a name at built time, but the only evidences we have of pyramid names go from Sneferu (Fourth Dynasty) to Amenemhat III (Twelfth Dynasty), although not all of them were finished and, thus, don't a name.

Solar Temple Name

As well as the pyramids, the Solar Temples built during the Fifth Dynasty had a name. Even though we have records in documentation for 6 or 7 solar temples, only 2 have been identified.

Hykso Name

During the 2nd Intermediate Period, the kings of Fifteenth Dynasty were foreigner kings, from the Canna'an region. These rulers were known with the title of Heka Hasut (HqA-hswt).

Great Priest of Amun Name

During the 3rd Intermediate Period, several Great Priests of Amun ruled in Upper Egypt (mainly at Thebes) as kings and thus they kept that title in their royal names.

Related tools

King Finder

Find any egyptian king or queen by selecting the hieroglyphic icons in their name. Any name. Right from your device while travelling to Egypt or visiting a museum anywhere.

Go to King Finder

Usage statistics

Discover which hieroglyphic icons were most used on every dynasty and which kings and queens used them in their names as well as other related statistical information.

Go to Statistics

Chronology

Even though chronology is not the goal for this application, we found that having an updated ancient Egypt chronological and comparative table would be very useful.

Go to Chronology