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Ramesses or Ramses? Why pharaohs have so many spellings

14 October 2026

Ramesses and Ramses are the same king, and neither spelling is wrong. Hieroglyphs wrote only consonants, so his name reaches us as rꜥ-ms-sw, and every modern form adds vowels by guesswork and habit. Ramesses, the usual form in English-language Egyptology, follows the Latin. Ramses is a shorter form common in popular books and films.

The same gap explains Thutmose and Tuthmosis, Khufu and Cheops, Menkaure and Mycerinus. One form of each pair is built from the hieroglyphs by Egyptologists' rules. The other came down through Greek writers who recorded the names many centuries after these kings had died.

Egyptologists add the vowels by convention

Each sign in a royal name stands for one, two or three consonants. To say the result aloud, Egyptologists follow a convention: an e goes between consonants, the vulture ꜣ and the forearm ꜥ are said as a, the reed i as i, and the quail chick w as u. The word nfr, “good” or “beautiful”, becomes nefer this way.

Egyptologists add these vowels to speak the words aloud. They do not claim the Egyptians said them that way. Two scholars applying the rule can still land on different spellings, and older books used other rules, so one king can carry four or five names in English.

Egyptian vulture Forearm Flowering reed Quail chick

Ramesses means Ra bore him

Besides Amun's name and the canal N36 for mry, his birth name takes four signs. The sun N5 is the word rꜥ, the sun god Ra. The three fox skins F31 write ms, “born”. The folded cloth S29 repeats the s, a common habit called a phonetic complement. The sedge M23 writes sw, “him”. Together, rꜥ-ms-sw: “Ra is the one who bore him.”

By the convention, the consonants become Ra-mes-su. The English spelling follows Greek and Latin forms of the name (Ramessus, Ramesses) instead, and the Hebrew Bible already knew it as Raamses, a city built by the Israelites in Exodus 1:11. Eleven kings took the name. The numbers I to XI are modern labels.

The rest of the cartouche, mry-imn, is “beloved of Amun”, said Meryamun. The Jewish historian Josephus, quoting the Egyptian priest Manetho, gives the whole thing as Armesses Miamun.

Canal Sun Three fox skins Folded cloth Sedge

Write the Ramesses cartouche

Thutmose has four English spellings

Four kings of the 18th Dynasty share the birth name ḏḥwty-ms, “Thoth is born”, among them Thutmose I and Thutmose III. The ibis on a standard G26 writes the god's name ḏḥwty. The fox skins F31 and the folded cloth S29 write ms again.

Read strictly by the convention, ḏḥwty-ms is Djehutymes, the form some books give. Thutmose mixes two traditions: Thoth is the Greek name of the god Djehuty, and -mose is the ending Egyptologists also use in Ahmose and Ramose. Tuthmosis puts a Greek ending on it, and Victorian books printed Thothmes.

Ibis on a standard

Cheops is the Greek form of Khufu

The builder of the Great Pyramid wrote his name with four alphabet signs: the placenta Aa1 for ḫ, the quail chick G43 for w, the horned viper I9 for f and the quail chick again. By the convention ḫwfw becomes Khufu, ḫ said kh and each w said u. It is short for Khnum-khufu, “Khnum protects me”.

Herodotus, the Greek historian of the 5th century BC, called him Cheops, about two thousand years after the king's reign. Manetho, an Egyptian priest who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek in the 3rd century BC, gave him as Souphis. Cheops still appears in older books. Egyptologists today write Khufu.

Placenta Horned viper

Mycerinus comes from the Greek Mykerinos

The third pyramid at Giza belongs to the king whose throne name is mn-kꜣw-rꜥ. The sun N5 stands first in his cartouche, out of respect for the god, but is read last. The game board Y5 with the water ripple N35 writes mn, “lasting”, and three pairs of raised arms D28 write kꜣw, the kas or life forces. The name means “Eternal are the kas of Ra”.

Read aloud, that is Menkaure, also printed Menkaura or Menkara depending on how the last vowel is guessed. Herodotus wrote Mykerinos, which Latin turned into Mycerinus, and Manetho wrote Mencheres.

Game board Ripple of water Raised arms

Searches need both forms of a name

Search under both forms. Nineteenth-century books, and many translations of Greek and Roman authors, use the Greek names: Cheops, Mycerinus, Amenophis for Amenhotep, Sesostris for Senusret. Most recent guidebooks use the Egyptian-based forms.

For your own writing, pick one form and keep it. Ramesses, Thutmose, Khufu and Menkaure are the forms most English-language Egyptologists use today.

Questions

How was Ramesses actually pronounced?

The exact sound is lost, but foreign scripts help. Cuneiform letters found at the Hittite capital Hattusa spell his name something like Riamessesa, which suggests the ancient vowels differed from the modern Ra-mes-su.

Is Ozymandias the same person as Ramesses II?

Yes. Ozymandias is a Greek form of the first part of his throne name, Usermaatre. Shelley took it from the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus for his 1818 poem.

Who was Manetho?

An Egyptian priest of the 3rd century BC who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek under the Ptolemies. His book is lost. Its king lists survive in quotations by later writers such as Josephus, and his grouping of kings into dynasties is still used.

Why do some books say Amenophis instead of Amenhotep?

Amenophis is the Greek form of imn-ḥtp, “Amun is content”, passed down from Manetho's lists. Amenhotep is the same name read from the hieroglyphs by the modern convention.

Glossary

alphabet sign: A hieroglyph that stands for one consonant, such as the horned viper for f. Egyptian has about 25 of them, used beside signs for two or three sounds.
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.
dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
Egyptologist: A scholar who studies ancient Egypt: its language, writing, objects, buildings and history.
hieroglyphs: The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
phonetic complement: An alphabet sign written beside a sign for two or three sounds, spelling part of its sound again as a help to the reader.
priest: A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
pyramid: A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
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.

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Where to see it

Giza Pyramids site
Great Pyramid of Khufu monument