One of the problems I’ve had to face when writing the Khamtir books is the issue of pharaonic names.
Egyptologists usually refer to a king by his birth name plus an ordinal number to differentiate him from similarly named kings (e.g. Ramesses II). This convention is also used in a lot of historical fiction set in ancient Egypt, but I’ve been reluctant to follow suit. For starters, it would cause confusion since the three kings who play a role in my novels would all be called ‘Ramesses.’ Also, there is an increasing amount of evidence that suggests that their reigns overlapped to some degree. In my books, I use the chronology proposed by Ad Thijs. He believes that the reigns of Ramesses IX and Ramesses XI may have overlapped, and when Ramesses IX died, Ramesses X replaced him on the throne and ruled alongside Ramesses XI for a brief period of time. Once Ramesses X was dead, Ramesses XI was finally in control of the entire country. Trying to use ordinals in these circumstances would be rather nonsensical.
Confusion aside, the ‘birth name plus ordinal’ system is also anachronistic. Although Egyptian kings had five names, their prenomen (also known as their ‘throne name’) and their nomen (also known as their ‘birth name’) were used the most. So the main pharaoh in my books, Ramesses XI, would have been known to his contemporaries as ‘Menmaatre – Setepenptah’ (which can be translated as ‘The Justice of Re Endures – Chosen of Ptah’) and ‘Ramesses – Khaemwaset – Meryamun – Netjerheqaiunu’ (which translates as ‘Re has fashioned him – He Appears in Waset – Beloved of Amun – Divine Ruler of Iunu’). It has been theorized that a king’s names served as a sort of ‘vision statement’ for his reign. Some kings even changed them as their reign wore on, perhaps to reflect changing circumstances.
When I need to refer to Ramesses XI in dialogue or narration, I use the first part of his throne name: ‘Menmaatre’ (though I may opt to use the abbreviated form ‘Menmare’ instead). It’s not difficult to pronounce, so it shouldn’t be a stumbling block to anyone. If I need to be very formal, I’ll add the second part (known as the epithet), but I decided to translate it in order to avoid overloading the reader with strange words. 🙂 I know of at least one author who actually translates the entire royal name, but in that case, the king was only mentioned in passing in a short story. Referring to ‘King The Justice of Re Endures’ throughout an entire novel would get old quickly!
Codex Lochianus 