Recipient of the Order of the Golden Fly
for services rendered ;)

The king acquired and maintained his divinity through a series of rituals. The first such ritual the king participated in was his coronation, called in Egyptian khai , which means “to arise” and was also used to describe the sun’s rising. At this time, the five elements of the king’s formal titulary were announced: a Horus name, representing the king as the earthly embodiment of the sky-god Horus; a “Two Ladies” name (the two ladies being the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjit, the two protective goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt); the Golden Horus (or simply the Gold) name, the exact significance of which is uncertain; his throne name, assumed at accession, which was preceded by the title “King of Upper and Lower Egypt”; and the birth name which, beginning in the Fourth Dynasty (2625–2500 B.C.E. ), was compounded with the title “son of Re.” It is the throne name and birth name that were surrounded by a cartouche (an oval or oblong figure that held the king’s names). Read more: http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/105/Kingship-Rituals.html#ixzz0IhNr5LUB&C

DIVINE KINGSHIP

Horus Name Nebty Name (preceded by “He of the Two Ladies”) Gold Name (later preceded by “Horus of Gold”) Throne Name (preceded by “He of the Sedge and the Bee”) Birth Name (preceded by “Son of Ra”) It all started in the first dynasties with the Horus name, which clearly remained the only proper way to refer to a king throughout the first three dynasties. This name was displayed in a rectangular frame, called a serekh, depicting the paneled facade of an early royal palace. This serekh was surmounted with the image of a falcon. The name inside the serekh (“Powerful in Heart”, “Pleasing in Powers”, “Cobra”) did not refer to Horus. That the falcon indeed represents Horus, god of order—and not just any falcon—became clear when King Peribsen had the falcon replaced with an image of Seth, god of chaos. As a graphic device, the serekh clearly sets the king's name apart from any other text, which both reinforces the status of the king, and aids in reading a language devoid of punctuation. The title He of the Sedge and the Bee, sometimes abbreviated to He of the Sedge, was the Egyptian way of saying “King of Egypt” (the sedge is a rush-like plant that grows in marshes). Contrary to popular belief, “Sedge” and “Bee” did not initially represent Upper and Lower Egypt, but rather were an expression of the duality so dear to Egyptian thought. The title by itself first appeared during King Den's reign (Dynasty 1, circa 3050 BC) , but it wasn't yet associated with a name. Twenty years later, King Anedjib first used He of the Sedge along with an alternate name for himself, but the use of this new throne name remained limited to special occasions for the next few hundred years. With the end of Dynasty 3 (2613 BC), the Horus name suddenly started losing importance. Egyptians invented a new graphic device to contain and set apart a second name for the king. This new symbol, a carefully plaited and knotted loop of rope elongated as needed to accommodate names of varying length, is the cartouche design so familiar to us as ensign of Egyptian royalty. We do not know whether the cartouche initially contained the king’s throne name or his birth name. But we can tell that this “cartouche name” forever replaced the Horus name as the usual way to refer to the king. With Neferirkare, third king of Dynasty 5 (2744 BC), a second cartouche name appeared. We believe that as long as the king reigned over the country, Egyptians used his throne name (first cartouche), but when he died (and was therefore no longer king), they reverted to his birth name (second cartouche). A little over a hundred years later (Dynasty 6), Egyptians started using the king’s birth name during his reign. Hence, the birth name of the king, which had been of little importance in the first two dynasties (indeed, we have no knowledge of the birth names of these kings), became an intrinsic part of his royal identity. Even though cartouche names were popular, until King Mentuhotep of Dynasty 11 (2060 BC), the Horus name remained the truly unique name of a pharaoh. Kings sometimes changed their throne names to advertise changes in political orientation, but would never have considered changing their Horus name. In a marked departure, Mentuhotep, who ushered in the Middle Kingdom by reunifying Egypt, marked the progression of his 50-year reign with evolving Horus names: first “He who Gives Heart to the Two Lands”, then “Lord of the White Crown”, and finally in year 39 “Uniter of the Two Lands”. From then on, it was the cartouche names and not the Horus name that expressed the unique identity of a king. This switch probably reflects a profound change in the religious character of kingship. The king had become first and foremost King and Son of Ra, and secondarily the Living Horus. The Gold and Nebty names, whose origin can be traced to Dynasty 1, did become an integral part of the “classic titulary,” but remained of marginal use. The gold sign first appeared next to the serekh of King Den of Dynasty 1. Eventually, it became a title introducing an alternate name for the king. King Snefru of Dynasty 4 first combined the gold sign with the falcon, and his successor King Khafre furthered the idea and coined the titled name “Gold, Horus the Powerful”. But it is not until Dynasty 13 that “Horus of Gold” became an immutable title. The title He of the Two Ladies was first used by King Semerkhet of Dynasty 1 as part of a name introduced by He of the Sedge. The “two ladies” in question are Goddess Wadjet and Goddess Nekhbet, later attached to the northernmost and southernmost cities of the kingdom. With King Senusret II of Dynasty 12 (1897 BC), “He of the Two Ladies” clearly became a title introducing a separate name. With Senusret II, the “classic” five-name titulary took its final form. The Horus, throne, and birth names remained the only names set apart from regular text by graphic elements. And although the five names rarely appeared together after the occasion of his installation, the original sequence (Horus, Nebty, gold, throne, and birth) endured throughout the remainder of Egyptian civilization. Bibliography (on The Five Names of Pharaoh) Clayton, Peter A. 1994 Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson, London, UK. Quirke, Stephen 1990 Who Were the Pharaohs? A History of their Names with a List of Cartouches. Dover Publications, New York, NY. Rice, Michael 1991 Egypt’s Making: The Origin’s of Ancient Egypt, 5000-2000 B.C.. Routledge, New York, NY.