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Thutmose I in hieroglyphs: Aakheperkare and Thutmose, sign by sign
14 October 2026
Thutmose I wrote his names in two cartouches. His throne name, Aakheperkare, is four signs: the sun disc, a wooden column, a scarab and a pair of raised arms. His birth name, Thutmose, "Thoth is born", is three: an ibis on a standard, three fox skins tied together and a folded cloth.
He was the third king of the 18th Dynasty, ruling around 1504 to 1492 BC by one common dating. A soldier king, he took Egyptian armies deep into Nubia and across Syria to the Euphrates. He was also the father of Hatshepsut, and her temple is one of the best places to find his name.
Aakheperkare takes four signs
The throne name is ꜥꜣ-ḫpr-kꜣ-rꜥ, said "aa-kheper-ka-ra". The sun disc (N5) is Ra and, as in nearly every throne name, it stands at the top out of respect and is read last. The wooden column (O29) writes ꜥꜣ, "great". The scarab beetle (L1) writes ḫpr, "kheper", to come into being, a form or manifestation. The raised arms (D28) are the ka, the life force.
The site renders it "Great is the form of the ka of Ra". Other books give "Great is the manifestation of the ka of Ra". His son and grandson built their throne names from the same pieces: Thutmose II was Aakheperenre and Thutmose III was Menkheperre.
Thutmose means Thoth is born
The birth name is ḏḥwty-ms, said "djehuty-mes". The ibis on a standard (G26) writes the name of Thoth, ḏḥwty, god of writing and wisdom, in a single sign. The three fox skins (F31) write ms, "born", and the folded cloth (S29) repeats its s as a reading aid.
Thutmose is the modern form, built from Greek spellings such as Tuthmosis. Four kings of the dynasty carried it, and books number them I to IV. Here the god's name is read first, just where it stands.
A new king announces his names
Thutmose I did not claim to be a king's son. His mother was Senseneb and his father is unknown. He followed Amenhotep I, who left no heir, and he married Ahmose, probably a princess of the old royal line.
On the day he was crowned he sent a decree to Turo, his viceroy of Kush, setting out his full set of five names and telling him which name to use in offerings and which in oaths. His Horus name, written under the falcon (G5), was kꜣ-nḫt mry-mꜣꜥt, "Strong bull, beloved of Maat", opened by the bull (E1) and with the hoe (U7) for mr, "love".
His armies reached the Euphrates
His first campaigns went south. In his second year he carved a stela at Tombos, near the Third Cataract, and an inscription of his stands at Kurgus, beyond the Fourth Cataract. He then marched into Syria and crossed the Euphrates. The stela he set up there has never been found, but his grandson Thutmose III wrote that he placed his own beside it.
At home his architect Ineni enlarged the Karnak temple of Amun with the Fourth and Fifth Pylons and a pair of obelisks. Ineni also cut the king's tomb, and his own tomb text boasts that he did it "no one seeing, no one hearing".
Karnak and Deir el-Bahari keep his names
At Karnak one of his obelisks still stands, about 21.7 metres tall, beyond the Third Pylon. Each face has three columns of text. The middle one is his own dedication, with his names. Look for the column and the scarab under the sun.
At Deir el-Bahari, Hatshepsut gave her father a chapel and an offering hall in her temple, and the birth reliefs show Amun visiting her mother in his form. When her names were attacked after her death, a few of her cartouches were recut with his, though more often with her husband's.
In the Valley of the Kings he was probably the first king to be buried. Hatshepsut moved him into her own tomb, KV20, and Thutmose III moved him again, to KV38. Which tomb was cut for him first is debated. The quartzite sarcophagus she had recut for him, with his name over hers, is in Boston. A mummy long labelled Thutmose I is now in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, though a CT scan in 2007 found the man died at about 30, likely too young to be him.
His throne name puts the sun at the top
For Aakheperkare, put the sun at the top of the oval, then the tall column and the scarab side by side, with the raised arms underneath. For Thutmose, the ibis stands on its perch at the top, with the fox skins hanging below and the folded cloth last.
The column and the raised arms tell Aakheperkare apart from his grandson's Menkheperre.
Questions
How do you pronounce Thutmose?
Most people say "TOOT-mose" or "THOOT-mose". The Egyptian was closer to "djehuty-mes". The vowels are guesses, since the writing left them out.
Is Tuthmosis I the same as Thutmose I?
Yes. Tuthmosis and Thutmosis are Greek-style spellings, and Djehutymes is closer to the Egyptian. Books use all of them for the same king.
Was Thutmose I the father of Hatshepsut?
Yes, by his queen Ahmose. Her husband Thutmose II was her half-brother, his son by a second wife, Mutnofret. Hatshepsut later stressed her descent from him to justify her own rule.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- pylon
- The huge gateway of a temple: two sloping towers with a door between them, carved with scenes of the king.
- scarab
- The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
- stela
- An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
- 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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More to read
- 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.
- Djoser's name in hieroglyphs: his serekh read sign by sign Djoser's name in hieroglyphics: his own Horus name Netjerikhet read sign by sign in its serekh, the later name Djoser, and where to see both.