Any as an Element in Theophoric Names

Abstract

Exophoric names2 those that honor a god (theophoric), a king (basilophoric), or some other celebrated individual3 account for a large number of ancient Egyptian personal names. Such names might be chosen by parents (or perhaps by other relatives or members of the community) on the basis of circumstances surrounding the birth, or aspects of the political and religious environment.4 Parents' devotion to a particular deity or deities might dictate the choice of a name, or they might be influenced by current fashions in theology.5 Theophoric names, therefore, even in the absence of stelae, decorated tombs, and other tangible remains, may serve as indirect evidence for the popularity of a divine cult in a given district, for the perceived nature of a deity, and for his or her special significance to a particular social or occupational group.6 During the New Kingdom, the corpus of theophoric names expands; many make a statement to the effect that the god is strong or valorous; but also popular are those that stress the gracious or beneficent aspects of the deity in question.7 Others efer to an event in mythological time or in the festival calendar: for example, Thutmose (Thoth is born) or Mutemwia (Mut is in the barque). Among basilophoric names of the period, Ranke found just as great a variety;8 and m ny of the latter parallel theophoric names in the kinds of statements they make about the king, a god manifest on earth (e.g., Ramessesnakht) . Although some constructions are restricted to basilophoric names,9 there is no sharp distinction between the two categories; in effect, personal names that incorporate royal names form a subset of theophoric names. Such a distinction is even less significant in the case of names honoring those kings who became especially popular beneficiaries of posthumous cults. We might expect, then, that the cult of Amenhotep I, a focus of much devotion from the Eighteenth Dynasty through the Third Intermediate Period,10 would inspire the bestowal of theophoric names among his devotees. If we seek names based on the nomen alone, we 1 A brief version of this paper was presented in April, 1994, at the Annual Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, Toronto. I thank Professor Cathleen Keller, Mr. David Larkin, and Ms. Heidi Eberhardt for their comments and suggestions.