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Hatshepsut's name in hieroglyphs: her two cartouches and where to see them
13 October 2026
Hatshepsut's names fill two cartouches. Her throne name, Maatkare, is three signs: the sun disc, the seated goddess Maat and a pair of raised arms. Her birth name, Hatshepsut, means "Foremost of noble women" and is read from the front half of a lion.
She ruled Egypt as a full king from about 1473 BC to her death around 1458 BC. The exact years differ between books. After her death many of her cartouches were chiselled away, so reading her name often means spotting the empty space where it once stood.
Three signs write Maatkare
The throne name is mꜣꜥt-kꜣ-rꜥ, said "maat-ka-ra": "Truth is the ka of Ra". As in most throne names, the sun disc (N5) for Ra stands at the top out of respect and is read last.
The seated goddess with a feather on her head (C10) is Maat, the order of the world: truth, justice, things as they should be. The raised arms (D28) are the ka, a person's life force.
A lion's front begins her birth name
The birth name is ḥꜣt-špswt, said "hat-shep-sut". The forepart of a lion (F4) writes ḥꜣt, "front, foremost", with a bread loaf (X1) for its t. The noble seated on a chair with a flail (A51) writes šps, "noble", and the strokes of the plural (Z3) after it make "noble women". Monuments differ in the details, such as whether a second loaf is written out.
In her cartouche the birth name is usually joined to an epithet, ẖnmt-imn, "joined with Amun", said "khenemet-amun". The jug with a handle (W9) writes ẖnm, "to join". Amun's name comes first in the oval, as gods' names do, though it is read after the verb.
A woman took a king's titles
Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I and the queen of Thutmose II. When he died, his young son Thutmose III became king and she acted as regent. A few years later she was crowned herself and took the full set of royal names.
Her titles are written in the feminine. The loaf (X1) marks feminine words and keeps turning up in them: she is often "daughter of Ra" before her birth name, where a king would be "son of Ra". Many statues and reliefs still show her with a king's kilt and false beard, and some texts call her "he".
Many of her cartouches were erased
Late in the reign of Thutmose III, her figures and names were attacked on many monuments. Some cartouches were cut out, leaving a smooth oval. Others were recut with the names of Thutmose I or Thutmose II. Why it happened is still debated. Most scholars link it to the royal succession, since it came about twenty years after her death.
To read an erased name, count the sign spaces in the empty oval, look for traces of the lion's front or the seated Maat, and check whether the name next to it fits the scene.
Deir el-Bahari is the place to start
Her temple at Deir el-Bahari is the place to start: the Punt reliefs, the birth colonnade and the Anubis chapel, where her figures are erased beside those of Thutmose III. Her steward Senenmut is credited with its design, and small figures of him hide behind the shrine doors.
At Karnak, one of her obelisks still stands, its columns giving her titles, and the Red Chapel has been rebuilt in the Open Air Museum. Medinet Habu keeps a small temple of Amun built under her and Thutmose III. Abroad, the Metropolitan Museum in New York shows statues from her temple with Maatkare on the thrones. The mummy usually identified as hers is in Cairo, at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
Maatkare is easy to write yourself
Draw the oval, then the sun at the top. Maat sits below it facing the same way as the other signs, with the tall feather on her head. The raised arms go underneath, elbows bent like a goalpost.
Practise the three shapes, then look for them in erased ovals where the sun still shows at the top.
Questions
How do you pronounce Hatshepsut?
Most people say "hat-SHEP-sut". The vowels are modern conventions, since Egyptian writing left them out.
Was Hatshepsut a queen or a pharaoh?
Both, one after the other. She was a queen as the wife of Thutmose II, then she was crowned and ruled as king with her own throne name.
How was Hatshepsut's mummy identified?
In 2007 a team led by Zahi Hawass announced that a tooth, found in a box inscribed with her name, fitted the jaw of an unnamed mummy from tomb KV60. The match is widely quoted, but no DNA test has confirmed it, and some scholars doubt it.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- epithet
- A title or phrase added to a name, such as "beloved of Amun" after a king's name or "true of voice" after the name of someone who has died.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- pharaoh
- The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
- regent
- Someone who rules for a king who is too young. Hatshepsut ruled so for the boy Thutmose III before she was crowned king herself.
- relief
- A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
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- Thutmose I in hieroglyphs: Aakheperkare and Thutmose, sign by sign Thutmose I's name in hieroglyphics: throne name Aakheperkare and birth name Thutmose read sign by sign, his coronation decree, and where to see them.
- Khafre's name in hieroglyphs: his cartouche, sign by sign Khafre's cartouche in hieroglyphics: its three signs read one by one, his Horus name Userib, and the statues at Giza and Cairo that carry his name.
- Amenhotep III's name in hieroglyphs: how to read it and where to see it Amenhotep III's name in hieroglyphics: the throne name Nebmaatre and birth name Amenhotep read sign by sign, his scarabs, and where to see his cartouches.