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The five names of a pharaoh

10 October 2026

A pharaoh had five names, and each one came after its own title: the Horus name, the Two Ladies name, the Golden Horus name, the throne name and the birth name. Only the last two were written in cartouches. A museum label usually gives a king those two, and his full set, written out on a stela or an obelisk, fills a whole line.

The set grew over centuries. The Horus name is the oldest, used by the first kings around 3000 BC. The Two Ladies name appeared late in the First Dynasty, and the Golden Horus name and the title 'son of Ra' by the Fourth. From the Middle Kingdom on, kings used all five, and Roman emperors were still given them.

Each title announces the name after it

Every title is a small group of signs you can learn to spot. Once you know them, you know which of the five names follows.

The throne title is nswt-bjtj, said nesu-bity: the sedge plant of Upper Egypt and the bee of Lower Egypt, each with a small loaf for the ending t. It is translated 'king of Upper and Lower Egypt', or more literally 'he of the sedge and the bee'. The birth title is sꜣ-rꜥ, said sa-ra, 'son of Ra': the pintail duck for sꜣ, 'son', and the sun disc for Ra.

Horus name: the falcon, perched on a palace front called a serekh
Two Ladies name: a vulture and a cobra, each on a basket
Golden Horus name: the falcon standing on the sign for gold
Throne name: the sedge and the bee, then a cartouche
Birth name: the duck and the sun, then a cartouche

Falcon Basket Gold collar Sedge Bread loaf Bee Pintail duck Sun

Each title ties the king to the gods

The Horus name presents the king as the falcon god Horus on earth. The Two Ladies are Nekhbet, the vulture goddess of Upper Egypt, and Wadjet, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, who protect him. What the Golden Horus title meant is still argued over: one reading sees Horus triumphant over his rival Seth, another sees gold, which never tarnishes, as eternity.

The throne name was taken when the king came to the throne, and from the Middle Kingdom on it nearly always names the sun god Ra. The birth name was the one he had as a prince. Since several kings shared a birth name, it is often the throne name that tells them apart.

Tutankhamun carried all five names

Read in order, Tutankhamun's full titulary runs like this. His two cartouche names are the ones written on most objects from his tomb.

Horus: kꜣ-nḫt twt-mswt, Kanakht Tutmesut, 'strong bull, image of rebirth'
Two Ladies: nfr-hpw sgrḥ-tꜣwj, Neferhepu Segerehtawy, 'perfect of laws, who calms the Two Lands'
Golden Horus: wṯs-ḫꜥw sḥtp-nṯrw, Wetjeskhau Sehetepnetjeru, 'exalted in appearances, who pleases the gods'
Throne: nb-ḫprw-rꜥ, Nebkheperure, 'lord of forms is Ra'
Birth: twt-ꜥnḫ-imn ḥqꜣ-iwnw-šmꜥ, Tutankhamun, 'living image of Amun, ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis'

See Tutankhamun's two cartouches

Strong bull opens most New Kingdom Horus names

Tutankhamun's Horus name, Kanakht Tutmesut, takes ten signs inside its serekh. Kanakht, 'strong bull', opens the Horus names of most New Kingdom kings, Ramesses II's Kanakht Merymaat, 'strong bull, beloved of Maat', among them.

Bull: kꜣ, 'bull'
Arm swinging a stick: nḫt, 'strong'
Loaf, quail chick, loaf: twt, 'image'
Three fox skins, door bolt, loaf, quail chick: mswt, 'births', closed by three plural strokes

Bull Forearm holding a stick Quail chick Three fox skins Door bolt Three vertical strokes

Egyptians told their kings apart by the throne name

Numbers such as 'the second' are modern. Egyptians told their kings apart by the throne name, and Ramesses III borrowed the start of Ramesses II's: Usermaatre Setepenre for the older king, Usermaatre Meryamun for the younger.

Names could change during a reign. Tutankhamun was born Tutankhaten, 'living image of the Aten', and took the Amun form within his first few years as king.

Foreign courts knew kings by the throne name too. In the cuneiform letters from Amarna, Amenhotep III is Nimmureya, a rendering of his throne name Nebmaatre.

Head and neck of a canine Goddess Maat Adze

Nebkheperure makes a good first cartouche

The cartouche page loads a king's names sign by sign, so you can draw each one and see how the block fits together. Start with Nebkheperure: the sun at the top, then the scarab, the plural strokes and the basket.

Scarab beetle Plural strokes

Draw Tutankhamun's throne name

Questions

Which name did the Egyptians use for their king?

Texts about the king often say simply ḥm.f, 'His Majesty'. By the end of the 18th Dynasty he could also be called pr-ꜥꜣ, 'great house', a word for the palace that became 'pharaoh'.

Did queens who ruled have five names?

Yes. Hatshepsut took a full titulary as king, with feminine forms in some of the names: her Golden Horus name Netjeretkhau begins with netjeret, 'divine' in the feminine. Her throne name was Maatkare.

Where can I see a full five-name titulary?

On obelisks, stelae and temple doorways, where there was room to write it all. The obelisk of Ramesses II in front of Luxor Temple is covered with his names and titles, and its twin has stood in the Place de la Concorde in Paris since 1836.

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.
dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
Horus name: The oldest of a king's names, written in a serekh under the Horus falcon. It names the king as the god Horus on earth.
Lower Egypt: The north of Egypt, the flat Nile Delta from around Memphis to the sea. It is called lower because it is downstream.
Middle Kingdom: The age when Egypt was united again, about 2055 to 1650 BC. Its texts became the classic form of the language that later scribes copied.
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.
serekh: A frame showing the front of a palace, with a king's Horus name written above it and the Horus falcon on top. The oldest royal names are written in serekhs.
stela: An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
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.
Upper Egypt: The south of Egypt, the narrow Nile valley from around Memphis to Aswan. It is called upper because it is upstream.

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Where to see it

Luxor Temple site