Titulary, Royal

   The full style of the royal titulary consisted of five names and is attested in complete form beginning in the Middle Kingdom. During Dynasty 1, only two names were used: the Horus name, which identified the king with the sky god Horus, and the nebty name, which associated the king with the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet, the “two ladies,” mistresses of UpperEgyptand Lower Egypt. The Horus name was generally used on its own as the royal name during Dynasty 1, Dynasty 2, and Dynasty 3, so it is difficult to match these with personal names from other sources. The personal name, or nomen, becomes more prominent beginning in Dynasty 4, when it appears in a cartouche from the reign of Snefru, but it is clearly distinguished beginning in Dynasty 5, when there also appears the prenomen or throne name adopted upon accession and compounded with the name of the sun god Re. The Golden Horus name gradually evolved from a title and was also adopted upon accession. The Horus name was written in a serekh, a recessed palace facade, while the prenomen and nomen were written in the cartouche ring. From Dynasty 19 onward, epithets were adopted to be added to the prenomen and nomen.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier