Fivefold Titulary

The Fivefold Titulary of an Egyptian Pharaoh is the standard naming convention taken by the kings of Ancient Egypt. It symbolises worldly power and holy might and also acts as a sort of mission statement for the reign of a monarch (sometimes it even changed during the reign).

The full fivefold titulary did not come into standard usage until the Middle Kingdom.

Horus Name

G5 This name was usually written in a Serekh, a representation of a palace façade. The name of the pharaoh was written in hieroglyphics inside this representation of a palace. Typically an image of the falcon God Horus, the patron deity of the monarchy, was perched on top or beside it.

This is the oldest form of the pharaoh’s name, originating in the Old Kingdom. Many of the oldest-known Egyptian pharaohs were known only by this title.

At least one Egyptian ruler, the Second Dynasty Seth-Peribsen, used an image of the jackal-God Seth instead of Horus, perhaps signifying an internal religious division within the country. He was succeeded by Khasekhemwy, who placed the symbols of both Set and Horus above his name. Thereafter, the image of Horus always appeared alongside the name of the pharaoh.

By the time of the New Kingdom the Horus name was often written without the enclosing palace façade.

(Nebty Name) He of the Two Ladies

G16 The nebty was associated with the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt:

Nekhbet, patron deity of Upper Egypt, represented by a vulture, and
Wadjet, patron deity of Lower Egypt, represented by a cobra.

The name is first definitively used by the First Dynasty pharaoh Semerkhet, though it only became a fully independent title by the Twelfth Dynasty.

This particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh, but always begins with the picture of vulture and the cobra.

Horus of Gold

G8 Also known as the Golden Horus Name, this form of the pharaoh's name typically featured the image of a Horus falcon perched above or beside the hieroglyph for gold.

The meaning of this particular title has been disputed. One belief is that it represents the triumph of Horus over his brother Seth, as the symbol for gold can be taken to mean that Horus was "superior to his foes". Gold was also strongly associated in the ancient Egyptian mind with eternity, so this may have been intended to convey the pharaoh's eternal Horus name.

Like the Nebty name, this particular name was not typically framed by a cartouche or serekh. It always begins with the depiction of the horus falcon perched above a representation of the sun.

(Praenomen) He of the Sedge and the Bee

M23-L2 The pharaoh's throne name, the first of the two names written inside a cartouche, and usually accompanied by one of two phrases: either n-sw-bity, "He of the Sedge and the Bee"; or neb tawy, "Lord of the Two Lands", referring to valley and delta regions of Egypt. This form of the name usually incorporated the name of the sun God, Re.

This form of the name first came to prominence at the end of the Third Dynasty, and later would become the most important official title of the pharaoh.

(Nomen) Son of Ra

G39-N5 This was the name given to the crown prince at birth. It was represented by the image of a duck, which was a homonym for the son, adjacent to an image of the sun, representing the father, the sun god Ra. It was first introduced to the set of royal titles by the Fourth Dynasty. Along with the Praenomen, this form of the name was written within a cartouche.

Modern historians typically refer to the ancient kings of Egypt by this name, adding ordinals (e.g. "II", "III") to distinguish between different individuals having the same name.