Introduction

The names of slaves follow the same general rules of formation as the proper names of free persons (Reference WataiWatai 2012; Reference HacklHackl 2013; and Chapter 3), but some names were typical for slaves. For instance, names such as ‘I grasped the feet of (a deity)’ are only attested for slaves (e.g., Šēpē(t)-Bēl-aṣbat, ^fŠēpē(t)-Ninlil-aṣbat, ^fŠēpētāya; see Reference TallqvistTallqvist 1905, 202). The main categories of slave names are discussed in the next section.

Slaves were probably given a new name when they entered a new household (Reference RadnerRadner 2005, 31). This phenomenon is visible especially when slaves are of foreign origin: by receiving an Akkadian name, they were given a new identity. This identity put them, before all, at the service of their owner. The relationship to the master could be made explicit in the name itself, as seen in the following examples (Reference StammStamm 1939):

As observed by Heather Baker, the element Marduk is so rare in slave names that a ‘deliberate avoidance’ seems to be at play (Reference Baker and WunschBaker 2002, 8). However, while slave names with Marduk are very rare (Atkal-ana-Marduk in Cyr. 64 and 315 being an exception), the elements Bēl and Bēltia are regularly included in slave names. Perhaps such names did not refer to the gods Marduk and Zarpanītu, but rather to the slave’s legal owners (bēlu ‘master’; bēltu ‘mistress’). Even when the scribe put the cuneiform sign DINGIR before the logogram EN, we cannot be sure whether this orthography reflects the actual meaning of the name. Ša-Bēl-bāni ‘All what pertains to Bēl is beautiful’ is an example of such an ambiguous slave name (Dar. 275).

Slave names rarely include references to family members (e.g., ‘son’, ‘heir’, ‘brother’, and ‘sister’). A name such as Nabû-dūr-ēdi ‘Nabû is the defence of the individual’, typical for slaves, seems to highlight the plight of single people. In the absence of family solidarity, to which a slave could not aspire given his status, prayer-names seem to deliver the slave’s fate into the hands of the gods and, as we have seen, perhaps also his master or mistress.

Main Categories of Slave Names

Slave names often express a prayer or a request for assistance, directed to a deity. The implicit effect of such names is that of a perpetual prayer uttered by the slave for himself or herself and maybe also for the benefit of his or her master or mistress. Some examples are:

Another category of slave names consists of expressions of trust in the deity and in his or her benevolence, for example:

Slaves also often bore names referring to flora and fauna, as can be seen in these examples:

Finally, there are some programmatic names, directly related to the slave’s activities:

In some cases, the foreign origin of slaves, even of those bearing Babylonian names, was indicated. For instance, in the large inheritance document of the Egibi family, one of the slaves was listed as ^fNanāya-silim ^uruga-an-da-ru-i-tu₄ ‘from Gandar’ (Dar. 379:44). Another example is ^fNanāya-ittia miṣrītu ‘from Egypt’ (Camb. 334 and duplicates). In the case of Tabalāya the slave’s name refers to Cilicia (Reference StreckStreck 2001, 114). Some slaves, finally, were simply called Ubāru ‘foreigner’. For instance, in Dar. 492 we encounter a slave described as follows: ‘Ubāru, the tattooed(?) slave whose right hand is inscribed with the name of Mušēzib-Marduk’.

Introduction

Babylonian male names are usually marked with a single vertical wedge, the so-called ‘Personenkeil’ (see Chapter 1). Exceptions to this rule are the names of the Neo-Babylonian kings, which are frequently spelled without a personal marker. Female names are clearly distinguished from male ones by the female marker MUNUS. Other than that, male and female names differ only slightly with regard to grammatical features, semantics, and structure (Chapter 3).

Besides male names, family names can also be introduced by the ‘Personenkeil’ or, in rare cases, even by MUNUS. Several male and a few female names are known to serve as family names concurrently.Footnote ¹ While these family names hark back to ancestral names, there are also family names which derive from occupational titles or places of origin. In these cases, the ‘Personenkeil’ can be replaced by or combined with the determinative LÚ, which is otherwise not used as a personal but as a professional marker in this period (see Chapter 4).

The longest personal names express complete sentences, consisting of two to four or, in rare cases, even more words.Footnote ² On the other hand, names can also consist of single and compound terms. In modern translations of Babylonian texts, personal names are capitalised and hyphens are used to connect the constitutive elements of the name. Personal markers and determinatives are usually not displayed, but in this volume we mark female names by placing ^f in superscript before the name. In the course of this chapter it will also be indicated whether a name is attested only as a male name or also as a family name.

The literal meaning of personal names varies greatly. Apart from names heavy with religious meaning, profane statements, questions, and vocabulary from daily life are also used to denote individuals. Nonsense names, on the other hand, are hardly attested. Possible pet names with reduplicated syllables (so-called ‘Banana names’) are not common in this period. Exceptions might, for instance, be the male names Bazuzu (common) and Igigi (rare), whose literal meaning still escapes us. Compared to older periods, there are also very few names in the Babylonian onomasticon of the first millennium which cannot yet be associated with a specific language; such names are discussed by Ran Zadok in this volume (see Chapter 18).

The overwhelming majority of personal names relates directly to the name-bearers and their environment. Tangible topics such as the newborn child, its family, and the circumstances of its birth are connected with the grand scheme of things: the value of life, its creation, and, of course, the divine influence on it. Thus, the onomasticon contains a great number of recurring terms related to religion, progeny, family, and social life. Some of the most common terms will be introduced in this chapter.

Although names remain untranslated in modern text editions, knowledge about their meaning is fundamental for creating correct transliterations and transcriptions, especially when ambiguous logographic spellings are involved (see Chapter 6). Moreover, the interpretation of names also enables us to understand their social significance, as names can convey information that goes far beyond a gender dichotomy. Many names contain relevant hints about the social status and origin of their bearers (see Chapter 1).

Interpretations of names given in the course of this chapter are based on Reference TallqvistKnut L. Tallqvist (1905), Reference StammJohann J. Stamm (1939), Reference NielsenJohn P. Nielsen (2015), and Reference ThissenCornell Thissen (2017), who collected and analysed a large amount of material from the Babylonian onomasticon. For supplementary information and further attestations, the online database Prosobab has been used (Reference Waerzeggers and GroßWaerzeggers and Groß et al. 2019).

Typical Elements of Male Names

Deities are particularly common elements of Babylonian, and generally of all Akkadian, names. In addition to the generic terms ilu ‘god’, ilī ‘gods’ (or ‘my god’), and ilānu ‘the gods’, spelled mostly with the logogram DINGIR plus possible endings,Footnote ³ names of specific divinities occur in large numbers. Starting with Nabû, the most popular god in the onomasticon of this period, Knut L. Tallqvist counted a total of 84 divine names attested in personal names (Reference Tallqvist1905). This included not only deities, but also divine titles, epithets, and unclear logographic spellings. The number of deities frequently used as theophoric name elements is in fact much smaller (Table 2.1).Footnote ⁴

Several groups of male names show a flexible use of theophoric elements. The common name type DN-iddin ‘(God x) has given’ is, for instance, attested with all kinds of different deities – for example, Anu-iddin, Bēl-iddin, Ea-iddin, Nabû-iddin, among others. The choice of a specific deity as theophoric name element depends on several factors (see also Chapter 1). Personal preferences, local customs, and historical trends, but also the social status of the name-bearer can play a role. Generally, men tend to include the principal god or goddess of their hometown in their names. There are also some who show a preference for deities associated with their professions, and still others who follow a theological pattern when naming their children, one by one in accordance with their birth order, after the hierarchical position of the gods in the pantheon (see Reference Baker and WunschBaker 2002).

Foreign gods can be mentioned in names that also include Babylonian elements and vice versa. More information on these hybrid names, reflecting the multi-cultural setting of this period, can be found elsewhere in this book (see Chapters 7, 8, and 12).

Apart from the deities themselves, their sanctuaries are also mentioned in personal names. Eanna, Ezida, Esagil, and other temples occur, as well as smaller places of worship, such as Bīt-Akītu and Bīt-Papsukkal. Secular toponyms and localities that link name-bearers to their home towns cover a similar range. Cities across the region of Akkad, from the capital of Babylon to provincial centres such as Sippar, Nippur, and Kish, are used as elements in personal names, alongside generic terms such as bītu ‘house’ (É) and ālu ‘city’ (URU).

Within the group of kinship terms that occur as elements in names, children play a larger role than adults. The mentioning of abu ‘(biological) father’ (AD)Footnote ⁶ and ummu ‘mother’ (AMA) is less common than that of aḫu ‘brother’ (ŠEŠ) and aḫātu ‘sister’ (mostly written syllabically), which can refer either to the newborn child itself or to its siblings. In any event, the mentioning of siblings indicates that the name-bearer was not the firstborn. It is possible that the term māru ‘son’ (DUMU) likewise expresses birth order, when a child bearing such a name was born after the one designated as aplu ‘son, heir’ (A, IBILA), kīnu ‘legitimate one’ (GIN), or kudurru ‘heir’ (NÍG.DU).Footnote ⁷

The terms šumu ‘name’ (MU) and zēru ‘seed’ (NUMUN) are typical for male names. As expressions for human continuity, they relate exclusively to sons who will hand down their father’s heritage, including his household and family name.Footnote ⁸ By contrast, references to the brief biological existence of human beings are contained in all kinds of names. Related concepts of life, health, and survival concern both male and female offspring. They are integrated in names through elements such as balāṭu ‘life’, ‘to live’ and bulluṭu ‘to keep alive’ or ‘to bring into being’ (TIN), šulmu ‘well-being’ (mostly written syllabically), and ṣillu ‘protection’ (GIŠ.MI).

Frequently recurring verbs in names are amāru ‘to see’ (IGI), aqāru ‘to be precious’ (KAL), banû ‘to create’ (DÙ), bašû ‘to exist’ (GÁL), erēšu ‘to wish for’ (APIN, KAM, KÁM), ešēru ‘to be/go well’ (GIŠ), eṭēru ‘to save’ (KAR, SUR), lēˀû ‘be able, powerful’ (Á.GÁL, DA), nadānu ‘to give’ (MU, SUM.NA), nâdu ‘to praise’ (I), kânu ‘to be(come) permanent, firm, true’ (GI.NA, GIN), naṣāru ‘to protect’ (ÙRU, PAB), paḫāru ‘to gather’ (BÁḪAR), qabû ‘to name, call’ (E), râmu ‘to love’ (ÁG), šalāmu ‘to be(come) healthy, intact’, and šullumu ‘to keep healthy, intact, safe’ (GI). Adjectives used as elements in names often derive from these verbs. Additionally, damqu ‘good’ (SIG₅), dannu ‘strong’ (mostly written syllabically, sometimes KAL), and ṭābu ‘good, sweet’ (DÙG.GA) are frequently used adjectives.

Sentence Names

Personal names expressing complete sentences do not necessarily follow the common word order of the Late Babylonian language (subject–object–predicate). Often, the predicate stands at the beginning of the name. The phrase ‘Marduk has given (an heir)’ occurs, for instance, in two different names: Marduk-(aplu-)iddin and Iddin-Marduk (also a family name). Along with the example of Aplu-iddin ‘He has given an heir’, it becomes clear that elements were not only exchanged but also omitted in order to create short or alternative forms of names. The practice of shortening or modifying names will be discussed in greater detail in the section on ‘Shortened Names’.

Despite their variation in length and word order, Babylonian sentence names can be divided into a number of subcategories based on their contents and narrative structure.

1. a) Names like ‘Marduk has given (an heir)’ express favourable actions by revered entities towards the name-bearer and his social environment from the viewpoint of an anonymous narrator. The actors included in these names are usually deities, while the newborn child and its environment appear as the beneficiaries of the actions.Footnote ⁹ Less often masters (of slaves), the king (as superior of his officials), and cities as well as regions are mentioned as entities bestowing favour.Footnote ¹⁰

   This group of names shows a huge diversity in structure. Names that obey the common word order usually consist of the subject in initial position followed either by an object and a conjugated verbal form or by a genitive construction consisting of a participle plus object. Compare, for instance, the parallel names Nabû-šumu-iddin ‘Nabû has given the name’ (also used as a family name) and Nabû-nādin-šumi ‘Nabû is the giver of the name’. Occasionally the subject is followed by two verbal forms indicating consecutive actions towards the newborn child: for example, Sîn-tabni-uṣur ‘O Sîn, you have created (the child), now protect (it)’ (also a family name).Footnote ¹¹ Names in this category usually consist of three words, but more elements occur when compound nouns are involved or prepositions are added: for example, Nabû-zēr-kitti-līšir ‘O Nabû, may the seed of truth thrive’ and Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘O Nergal, save from confusion’. In names using a reversed sentence order, the object is usually not retained; see, for instance, the male names Ibni-Ištar ‘Ištar has created’, Iddin-Bēl ‘Bēl has given’, and Erība-Enlil ‘Enlil has replaced for me’.

2. b) Conditions and qualities constitute the topic of another common group of sentence names, expressed by (verbal) adjectives. The subjects are usually deities, the king, the name-bearer, or relatives. Most of these names consist of two words, as in the male names Bēl-dannu ‘Bēl is strong’, Ištar-lēˀi ‘Ištar is capable’, and Aḫḫū-ṭābū ‘The brothers are good’. Three elements occur when compounds are employed or when positive injunctions are expressed, as in the rare male names Abi-ummi-aqar ‘The (maternal) grandfather is precious’ and Šarru-lū-dari ‘May the king be eternal’, or in the family name Arkât-ilāni-damqā ‘The future of the gods is good’. Four elements are exceptional: for example, the rare male name Abu-Enlil-dāri-libūr ‘O father, may Enlil stay firm forever’.

3. c) Apart from sentences pronounced by anonymous speakers, names can also express personal statements of the newborn child or a parent. Examples of such male names are Ana-Bēl-atkal ‘I trusted in Bēl’, Nanāya-uṣalli ‘I prayed to Nanāya’, and Abu-ul-īde ‘I do not know the (or my) father’ (also used as a family name).Footnote ¹² Invocations of deities frequently precede such statements, as in the male names Bēl-ina-nakutti-alsika ‘O Bēl, I called out to you in distress’ and Bābu-alsiki-abluṭ ‘O Bābu, I called on you and I lived’. The name Lūṣi-ana-nūr-Marduk ‘May I go out into the light of Marduk’ (also used as a family name) is a popular example of a name with atypical word order.

   A particularly common element of this type of names is the wish to see (lūmur ‘may I see’), mostly referring to a certain deity. Desired occasions and places can be named, as in the male names Nabû-ina-Esagil-lūmur ‘May I see Nabû in (the temple) Esagil’, Bēl-ina-kāri-lūmur ‘May I see Bēl at the mooring place’, Nabû-nūrka-lūmur ‘O Nabû, may I see your light’, and Pāni-Sîn-lūmur ‘May I see the face of Sîn’. Also, the wish for siblings or for one’s hometown can be expressed: for example, the male names Aḫḫē-lūmur ‘May I see (the) brothers’ and Ālu-lūmur ‘May I see the city’.

4. d) Equations between entities occur in names expressing declarative sentences as well as questions. In order to stress the estimation of a personal god, deities are matched with relatives of the name-bearer, authorities, and protective forces, or sometimes also with each other: for example, the male names Aḫu-kî-Sîn ‘The brother is like Sîn’, Adad-dayyānu ‘Adad is the judge’, Bēl-usātu ‘Bēl is (my) help’, Enlil-kidin ‘Enlil is protection’, and Sîn-kî-Nabû ‘Sîn is like Nabû’.Footnote ¹³ Comparisons between relatives and other phenomena are exceptional; see, for instance, the uncommon male name Aḫu-dūru ‘The brother is (like) a wall’. Compound nouns occur only scarcely: for example, the rare male name Aḫī-šadi-ili ‘My brother is (like) the mountain of the god’. As predicates are not employed, these names cannot always be distinguished from names based on nouns in genitive construction. When phrased as a question, they are usually recognisable by the initial interrogative particle mannu (or mamma) ‘who’: for example, the male names Mannu-kî-Nanāya ‘Who is like Nanāya?’, Mamma-kî-Ezida ‘Who is like Ezida?’, and Mamma-kî-šarri ‘Who is like the king?’.

5. e) Other questions expressed by male names are, for instance, Ammēni-ilī ‘Why, my god?’, Aya-aḫu ‘Where is the brother?’, Mannu-izkur ‘Who has proclaimed?’, and Mīnu-ēpuš-ilī ‘O my god, what have I done?’. Some are preceded by invocations of deities: for example, the male name Bēl-ammēni ‘O Bēl, why?’.

Not all sentence names can be assigned to one of the aforementioned groups. Some are completely exceptional, while others do not entirely match the structures and meanings of comparable names, such as the common male names Itti-DN-balāṭu ‘With DN there is life’, attested with various theophoric elements, and Ša-Nabû-šū ‘He is the one of Nabû’, also attested with the variant Ša-Bēl-šū ‘He is the one of Bēl’. The latter name constitutes a borderline case: by linking the name-bearer to the god Nabû or Bēl, respectively, this name’s meaning shows affinity with sentence names expressing equations between entities but its structure resembles that of names based on a genitive construction.

Compound Names (Genitive Constructions)

As the example of Ša-Nabû-šū ‘He is the one of Nabû’ illustrates, names based on genitive constructions do not have to be completely different from sentence names. Besides the fact that some can be interpreted as nominal sentences uttered by an anonymous speaker, parallels in meaning also occur. The relationship between deities and name-bearers or their environment is the most popular topic in both categories of names. Yet, the majority of compound names are characterised by a distinct vocabulary that indicates that we are not dealing with short forms of sentences, but with original names.

1. a) Some frequently attested compound names refer to the name-bearers as servants and subordinates of deities. This relationship can be expressed by the status terms amīlu ‘man’ and ardu ‘servant’ in male names and family names alike;Footnote ¹⁴ see Amīl-Nanāya ‘Man of Nanāya’, Arad-ili-rabî ‘Servant of the great god’, and Arad-Nergal ‘Servant of Nergal’ (also a family name). Alternatively, subordination is indicated metaphorically by terms like kalbu ‘dog’ and būru ‘calf’, such as in the male names Būr-Adad ‘Calf of Adad’ and Kalbi-Bābu ‘Dog of Bābu’. Occupational titles, temple designations, and geographic references are frequently employed in family names that express subordination, but hardly ever in male names of this type.Footnote ¹⁵

2. b) Compound names that refer to the birth of the name-bearer as a present of the gods can employ several synonymous terms for ‘gift’; see the male names Nidinti-Anu ‘Gift of Anu’, Qīšti-Marduk ‘Gift of Marduk’, Rēmūt-Bābu ‘Gift of Bābu’, and Širikti-Šamaš ‘Gift of Šamaš’.

3. c) Another group of common compound names express divine help and patronage; see, for instance, the male names Gimil-Gula ‘Favour of Gula’, Ina-ṣilli-Esagil ‘Under the protection of Esagil’, also attested with the variant Ina-ṣilli-šarri ‘Under the protection of the king’, and Kidin-Sîn ‘Protection of Sîn’ (also a family name). The contents and terminology of these names sometimes equal that of the aforementioned sentence names that express equations between deities and protective forces; compare, for instance, Bēl-eṭēri ‘Lord of saving’ (also a family name) and Bēl-eṭēri-Nabû ‘Lord of saving is Nabû’ (male name), or the male names Bēl-usātu ‘Bēl is (my) help’ and Nabû-bēl-usāti ‘Nabû is the lord of help’.

4. d) Widely known as a name for orphans and foundlings is Ša-pî-kalbi ‘From the mouth of a dog’ (see Chapter 1). Structurally similar names mention deities instead of the term kalbu ‘dog’, for example, Ša-pî-Bēl. In these cases, a metaphorical interpretation is also possible: ‘The one promised by Bēl’.Footnote ¹⁶

Single Words (Non-Compound Names)

The briefest names, consisting of only one word, show the biggest variety regarding contents. On the one hand, they can refer to concepts and ideas that also occur as elements of sentence names and compound names. These names might well be short versions of originally longer forms; see, for example, the male names Ēṭiru ‘Saviour’ (cf. Amurru-ēṭir ‘Amurru has saved’), Dābibī ‘My plea’ (cf. Iššar-dābibī-nēr ‘O Iššar, kill those who plot against me’), Gimillu ‘Favour’ (cf. Gimil-Nergal ‘Favour of Nergal’ or Nabû-mutīr-gimilli ‘Nabû is the one who returns kindness’), Balāssu ‘His life’ (cf. Enlil-balāssu-iqbi ‘Enlil pronounced his life’), Rībātu ‘Compensation’ (cf. Šamaš-erība ‘Šamaš has replaced for me’), and Talīmu ‘Favourite brother’ (cf. Nabû-talīmu-uṣur ‘O Nabû, protect the favourite brother’).Footnote ¹⁷ On the other hand, brief names can be based on a totally different vocabulary than those consisting of sentences or compounds. In addition to nouns denoting phenomena from the social and natural environment, isolated adjectives and verbs are also used as names.

1. a) Natural phenomena are represented when individuals are named after plants, stones, or other materials; see, for instance, the male names Burāšu ‘Juniper’ and Ḫuṣābu ‘Chip of wood’.

2. b) Also, a large group of animal names serve to denote individuals, both male and female (see Chapter 3 for female names). Curiously, wild beasts are more often referred to than domesticated ones, and highly symbolic animals, including lions, eagles, and the mythological Anzû bird, are completely lacking in the onomasticon. Instead we find, for instance, men called Barbaru ‘Wolf’, Arrab(t)u ‘(Female) dormouse’ (both forms are also used as family names), Ḫaḫḫuru ‘Raven’, Uqūpu ‘Monkey’, Šellebu ‘Fox’, Murašû ‘Wildcat’, and Kulbību ‘Ant’. Regarding domesticated animals, especially terms for offspring are used as male names; e.g., Kalūmu ‘Lamb’ and Mūrānu ‘Puppy’. Thus, it seems that animal terms serve mainly as pet names and nicknames, mimicking physical qualities and character traits of humans. Yet, despite their informal and at times humoristic connotation, hardly any of them are actually attested as the second name of an individual (Reference StammStamm 1939, § 4). The phenomenon of second names will be further discussed under ‘Nicknames and Double Names’.

3. c) The same holds for male names that refer directly to physical features and other personal characteristics, such as Dullupu ‘Sleepy’, Dummuqu ‘To be gracious’, Arrakūtu ‘Very tall’, Nummuru ‘Brilliant’, Tardennu ‘Second(ary)’, and Ašarēdu ‘The foremost one’ (also a family name). Despite their informal appearance, these names are not known as secondary names.

4. d) The geographical origin of men is reflected in names such as Bābilāya ‘Babylonian’, Balīḫû ‘Man from Balikh’ (cf. Bālīḫāya ‘The Balikhian’), or Miṣirāya ‘Man from Egypt’. These names are mainly used as family names, but occasionally they also denote male individuals.

5. e) The time of birth can play a role in name-giving. Some individuals are named after the month in which they were born, such as Ulūlāya ‘Man born in Ulūlu’, or after a festival taking place at the time, for example, Kinūnāya ‘Man born during the Kinūnu festival’.

6. (f) An individual’s social rank can be mirrored by names such as Batūlu ‘Young man’, Zikaru ‘Man’, Līdānu ‘Bastard’, and perhaps also Banūnu (West Semitic) ‘Little son’ (if not to be read in Akkadian: Bānûnu ‘Our creator’).

7. (g) Occupational titles constitute a particularly large group amongst the original one-word names. Most of them serve only as family names in the first millennium BCE, such as Asû ‘Physician’, Gallābu ‘Barber’, and Ṭābiḫu ‘Butcher’ (see Chapter 4). Only a few are used as male names; see, for instance, Dayyānu ‘Judge’ and Ḫazannu ‘Mayor’.

Individuation by Filiation

Although personal names denote individuals, they are not unique themselves. This does not only apply to popular names. Even uncommon names lose their exceptional status when reused in memory of their original bearers. Within small communities, such as nuclear families and local work teams, the fundamental non-uniqueness of personal names can be ignored. The mentioning of simple names and even generic titles, such as ‘mom’ or ‘boss’, is usually sufficient to identify a specific member of an in-group. Otherwise, short forms and nicknames can be employed to differentiate between namesakes within a community. However, the larger a group, the more it needs unambiguous ways to identify a specific person in time and place. Especially in official contexts, for instance, when drawing up long-term contracts such as property deeds, societies need a way to ensure that witnesses, acting parties, and their descendants can be identified in the future.

Official documents from first millennium BCE Babylonia frequently use additional data when referring to individuals. Besides indications of origins like ‘the Borsippean’ (^lúBAR.SIP^ki), status terms such as qallu ‘slave’ (of another individual) and occupational titles like ṭupšar bīti ‘college scribe’ were used. Freeborn people are usually designated as sons or daughters of their fathers. Occasionally, maternal names are given instead of paternal ones (see Chapter 1). In addition, the urban gentry also used family names taken from occupational titles of their members or from personal names of their (alleged) ancestors (see Chapter 4). In Seleucid times genealogies expand even more, as individuals are frequently mentioned by name, patronym, grandfather’s name, and family name.

Shortened Names

Shortening of names can take place for practical as well as affectionate reasons. In contrast to modern short names, Babylonian ones are not necessarily less official than their original full forms, as they are attested in all kinds of formal documents. Depending on the structure of the original name, there are different ways and degrees of shortening. The longer the original name, the more possibilities it offers for shortening. In addition to simple and multiple reductions, modifications also occur.

Names expressing complete sentences can be shortened by omitting one or more elements. Short forms created by such reductions still constitute complete and grammatically correct sentences that express the same basic meaning as the original full forms. Sometimes, however, the omission of elements led to ambiguous short forms in which the original sentence structures of the full names are not recognisable anymore. This is the case when, for instance, the male name Ana-Bēl-ēreš ‘He desired Bēl’ is shortened to the form Bēl-ēreš. This can be interpreted as either ‘He desired Bēl’ or ‘Bēl-desired’. Yet, most sentence names keep a grammatically clear structure, even when shortened by more than one element. The four-part male name Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘Nergal, save from confusion!’ can be shortened in two steps: firstly, to Ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘Save from confusion!’ and, secondly, to Tēšî-eṭir ‘Save (from) confusion!’ All three forms – Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir, Ina-tēšî-eṭir, and Tēšî-eṭir – are known to be variants used to denote the same individuals.Footnote ¹⁸ These persons are to my knowledge never called Nergal-tēšî-eṭir ‘O Nergal, save (from) confusion!’, although this name exists in general and appears to be another shortened variant of the full form Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir. Similarly, it is most likely that structurally similar names such as Šamaš-ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘O Šamaš, save from confusion’ or Nabû-ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘O Nabû, save from confusion!’ generate the same short forms as Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir, but such cases are, to my knowledge, not attested. Since the principles of shortening names have not been studied in detail yet, only attested variants are discussed in this chapter. All examples of short forms and nicknames given in the further course of this chapter are based on identified individuals recorded in the online database Prosobab; text references can be found there.

As the example of the name Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir, with its variants Ina-tēšî-eṭir and Tēšî-eṭir, illustrates, theophoric elements and prepositions are often omitted to create short forms. Several male names are shortened in the same way (Table 2.2).

Male names based on genitive constructions usually generate short forms by omitting the theophoric element (Table 2.3).

The particularly common type of sentence names that consist of three basic elements and that express favourable actions of revered deities can be shortened in two steps. First, the subject or the direct object of these names can be omitted. Then, further reduction is achieved by omitting either the direct object or the object of a genitive construction as seen in the examples of male names presented in Table 2.4.

The direct object of a sentence name can also be replaced by a structurally different element such as a personal suffix. The full male name Nabû-šumu-uṣur ‘O Nabû, protect the name’ is shortened into Nabû-uṣuršu ‘O Nabû, protect him’. Names with comparable structures can probably be modified in the same way.

Other cases of modified names illustrate that elements, isolated by double reduction, can be replaced by grammatically different forms of these elements: verbs can be replaced by substantives and vice versa. Balāṭu ‘Life’, for instance, is not only a double reduced short form of the male name Itti-Nabû-balāṭu ‘With Nabû there is life’ but also a modified short form of the male name Šamaš-uballiṭ ‘Šamaš has kept alive’. Curiously, the structurally equal male name Itti-Marduk-balāṭu ‘With Marduk there is life’ generates the modified short form Libluṭ ‘May he live’. This illustrates that not all principles of modification are easily predictable.

A widespread phenomenon is the modification of short forms by annexing a meaningless syllable, also known as a hypocoristic ending. Although hypocoristic forms give the impression of pet names, they are used in official contexts just like other short forms. Several hypocoristic endings occur. It is not always possible to distinguish them from Akkadian plural markers, possessive pronouns, and other meaningful suffixes, as, for instance, in the male name Aḫ(ḫ)ūtu ‘Brotherhood’ or, hypocoristically, ‘Brother’. Especially popular in the Babylonian onomasticon is a group of hypocoristic endings that coincide with the forms of the possessive suffix of the first person singular, namely the hypocoristic endings -ia, spelled Ci-ia/ía, and -āya, spelled Ca-a, or infrequently also Ca-ia, followed by -ea or -ēa, spelled Ce-e-a or (C)VC-e-a. Additionally, hypocoristic endings of West Semitic origin, including -ā, -ān, and -ī, also occur frequently (see Chapter 8). Table 2.5 provides a selection of differently structured male names and their hypocoristic short forms.

Nicknames and Double Names

In contrast to short names that always show at least some kind of similarity to their original full forms, nicknames and double names are completely different from the name that a person bears otherwise. Babylonian documents attest to this phenomenon frequently, sometimes directly by mentioning individuals with a ‘second (or: other) name’ (šumu šanû). More often, people use different personal names interchangeably without marking them as such. A son of Lūṣi-ana-nūr-Marduk (‘May I go out into the light of Marduk’) from the family Ilī-bāni (‘My god is the creator’) is, for instance, mostly referred to as Nādinu ‘Giver’, but in some documents he appears as Dādia ‘My favourite’ (Reference JoannèsJoannès 1989, 50–2). The frequency by which he is called Nādinu may indicate that this is his primary name. Still, the name Dādia, which is also attested as another name of a man called Nergal-ašarēdu (‘Nergal is the foremost’),Footnote ²⁰ is obviously valid in official contexts too. Male double names frequently show shifts between comprehensive and short names, as Table 2.6 shows. Shifts between names with serious content and seemingly humoristic names are, by contrast, not particularly common; however, note the example of Nergal-ušēzib ‘Nergal has rescued’ whose second name is Puršû ‘Flea’.Footnote ²¹

Not only personal names but also family names can vary. Some individuals use two family names interchangeably – one that refers to a (prebendary) profession, the other taken from the name of an ancestor. In the case of Ingallēa (meaning uncertain) and Gallābu ‘Barber’ the acquisition or disposal of prebends may have caused different branches of the clan to use the name that reflects their actual tenure or lack of the barber’s office.Footnote ²² There is also a family that abandoned their professional family name Ṭābiḫu ‘Butcher’ for unknown reasons in favour of a new ancestral family name Eṭēru ‘To save’. According to a study by Cornelia Reference Wunsch and CsabaiWunsch (2014a), this shift took place gradually over the course of several decades. Within one generation, members of the family switched back and forth from one name to the other or used both names interchangeably. It is possible that they tried to differentiate themselves from other, non-prebendary butchers called Ṭābiḫ-kāri ‘Butcher at the quay or market’ by using either the specified name Ṭābiḫ-Marduk ‘Butcher of Marduk’ or the new one, Eṭēru ‘To save’. Also, some members of the clan Zērāya (hypocoristically based on zēru ‘seed’ or Zēr-Aya ‘Seed of Aya’) may have changed their family name to Ileˀˀi-Marduk ‘Marduk is powerful’.Footnote ²³

Introduction

In cuneiform writing, female names are marked with the determinative MUNUS, as opposed to male names, which are marked with a single vertical wedge (see Chapter 1). Modern transliterations usually represent the female sign by placing ^f in superscript in front of the name. In this volume, we maintain this convention also in normalised versions of the names. In this way, normalised names can be easily recognised as male (unmarked) or female (preceded by ^f).

The structure of Akkadian female names is similar to the structure of male names; that is, they are composed of one or more elements (maximum four) and constitute either a sentence or a substantive. There is, however, a grammatical difference between male and female names. A verb, an adjective, or a noun forming part of a woman’s name is generally given a feminine form. For example, the name Iddin-Marduk ‘Marduk gave’ (i.e., Marduk gave the child who bears the name) is a male name, while the name ^fBānītu-taddin ‘Bānītu gave’, with the feminine form of the verb nadānu ‘to give’, is a female name. Here the form of the verb (or the adjective) does not correspond to the gender of the deity, but to the gender of the name-bearer.Footnote ¹ Another example of the grammatical difference between male and female names is Aḫūšunu ‘Their brother’, which is a male name, while ^fAḫāssunu ‘Their sister’ is the equivalent borne by women.

An additional feature is that female theophoric names include the name of a goddess. There are only a few examples of female names containing the name of a male god.Footnote ² By contrast, male names with a female theophoric element are well known, albeit not very numerous (see ‘Gendered Theophoric Elements’).

Finally, it should be noted that there are some names that were borne by both men and women. Examples of such names include: Silim-Bābu ‘Be friendly, O Bābu!’ (with the masculine form of the imperative of the verb salāmu), Šulum-Bābili ‘Well-being of Babylon’, Nidintu ‘Gift’, and Ša-pî-kalbi ‘Out of the mouth of a dog’, which refers to an abandoned child.

Classification of Sentence Names

Babylonian female names can be classified in two main types: names which constitute a sentence and names which constitute a substantive. In each type, further divisions are possible. Starting with sentence names, we discern roughly eight subcategories.

1. 1) Attribute names express an attribute of the divinity, with a divine name accompanying a nominal form such as ^fNanāya-šarrat ‘Nanāya is the queen’, an adjective such as ^fNanāya-damqat ‘Nanāya is good’, or a stative verb such as ^fBābu-ēṭirat ‘Bābu saves’. ^fDN-šarrat, ^fDN-damqat, and ^fDN-ēṭirat are very common names, but many different verbs, nouns, and adjectives, such as ṭābu ‘good’ (^fMammītu-ṭābat ‘Mammītu is good’), ilatu ‘goddess’ (^fNinlil-ilat ‘Ninlil is goddess’), aqāru ‘to be precious’ (^fAya-aqrat ‘Aya is precious’), ramû ‘to dwell’ (^fAttar-ramât ‘Attar lives’), rêšu ‘to rejoice’ (^fNanāya-rīšat ‘Nanāya rejoices’), dannu ‘strong’ (^fBānītu-dannat ‘Bānītu is strong’), and kašāru ‘to compensate’ (^fNanāya-kēširat ‘Nanāya compensates’), are also used. The names of goddesses are omitted in some cases, such as in the names ^fIna-Esagil-bēlet ‘She is the lady in Esagil’ and ^fIna-Esagil-ramât ‘She lives in Esagil’. Certain substantive names were regarded as an abbreviated form of attribute names; for example, the name ^fLēˀītu was likely an abbreviated form of ^fLēˀi-DN ‘DN is capable’ (see Reference HacklHackl 2013, 164–5).

2. 2) Petition names generally contain a verb in the imperative and express a plea to a divinity from the speaker, such as ^fNanāya-šimînni ‘Listen to me, O Nanāya!’ and ^fAya-bulliṭanni ‘Keep me healthy, O Aya!’. The speaker in these names was probably the name-bearer or possibly her mother. In addition to šemû ‘to listen’ and bulluṭu ‘to make healthy’, petition names include diverse verbs such as salāmu ‘to be friendly’ (^fBānītu-silim ‘Be friendly, O Bānītu!’), râmu ‘to love’ (^fRīminni-Ištar ‘Love me, O Ištar!’), dânu ‘to judge’ (^fNanāya-dīninni ‘Judge me, O Nanāya!’), naṣāru ‘to protect’ (^fNanāya-kilīlu-uṣrī ‘Protect my wreath, O Nanāya!’), maḫāru ‘to receive’ (^fBānītu-supê-muḫur ‘Receive my prayer, O Bānītu!’), eṭēru ‘to save’ (^fBānītu-eṭrīnni ‘Save me, O Bānītu!’), and bâšu (^fLā-tubāšinni ‘Don’t put me to shame!’).

3. 3) Wish names contain either the precative or imperative of a verb and express a plea to a divinity for a third person, generally the child who bears the name, such as ^fLū-balṭat ‘May she be healthy!’, ^fNanāya-bullissu ‘Keep her healthy, O Nanāya!’, and ^fBēltia-uṣrīšu ‘Protect her, O Bēltia!’, but sometimes for someone else, such as in the slave name ^fNanāya-bēlu-uṣrī ‘Protect my master, O Nanāya!’. The verbs naṣāru ‘to protect’ and bulluṭu ‘to make healthy’ are used frequently. The verb is omitted in some names, such as ^fNanāya-ana-bītišu (or ^fAna-bītišu) ‘(Show it) to her family, O Nanāya!’ and ^fAna-makānišu ‘(Show it) to her dwelling place!’.

4. 4) Trust names represent the name-bearer’s expression of trust or respect for a deity (‘Prospective trust’), such as ^fAna-muḫḫi-Nanāya-taklāku ‘I trust in Nanāya’, or the reward of trust (‘Retrospective trust’) such as ^fTašmētu-atkal ‘I trusted in Tašmētu’. Other examples of the former are ^fDN-ittia ‘DN is with me’, ^fDN-lūmur ‘I will see DN’, as well as the names meaning ‘DN is my … ’, such as ^fDN-šadû’a ‘DN is my mountain’. ^fItti-Nanāya-īnāya/-būnū’a ‘My eyes/face (are/is turned to) Nanāya’ and ^fGabbi-ina-qātē-Bānītu ‘All are in Bānītu’s hands’ are also included in this category. The latter category, the retrospective trust name, includes ^fIna-bāb-magāri-alsišu ‘At the gate of favour, I invoked her’, and ^fŠēpet(/Šēpessu)-DN-aṣbat ‘I took the feet of DN’, often abbreviated to ^fŠēpetaya.

5. 5) Thanksgiving names generally contain the preterite of a verb whose subject is a deity. They express the thanksgiving from the viewpoint of the name-giver, such as ^fTašmētu-tabni ‘Tašmētu created (the child who bears the name)’ or ^fBānītu-ṣullê-tašme ‘Bānītu heard my prayer’.

6. 6) Lament names include ^fĀtanaḫ-šimînni ‘I am tired, listen to me!’ and ^fAdi-māti-Ištar ‘How long, O Ištar?’. It may also be better to include ^fIna-dannāti-alsišu ‘In distress, I called her’ in this category, rather than in trust names. The speaker in these names is generally thought to have been the name-bearer, but it seems possible that the names expressed the feelings of the mother during or after giving birth. If so, it was presumably the mother who named the newborn girl.

7. 7) Praise names are also found, such as ^fMannu-akî-Ištaria ‘Who is like my Ištar?’, but this type of name is rare.

8. 8) All of the types listed here are theophoric names that refer to divinities, but a minority of sentence names do not refer to divinities. Examples include ^fAbu-ul-tīde ‘She does not know the father’ and ^fAḫātu-aqrat ‘The sister is precious’.

   The same classification can be applied to male names (Chapter 2), but there are some differences in the choice and preference of words and name types between female and male names. For example, some verbs such as nadānu ‘to give’ and kânu ‘to be(come) firm’ are common in male names, whereas female names with these verbs are rare. The terms māru ‘son’ and aplu ‘son, heir’ feature in many male names, but mārtu ‘daughter’ was not generally used for female names. Thanksgiving names are thus frequently attested for men, but rarely for women.

Classification of Substantive Names

Substantive names, or designation names, are grammatically nominal and are usually composed of one or, occasionally, two elements.Footnote ³ The following subcategories can be discerned:

1. 1) Theophoric names. While most of the sentence names are theophoric, the majority of designation names are not. The most popular type of theophoric designation name consists of amat- (or andi-) along with a divine name, such as ^fAmat-Nanāya ‘Servant of Nanāya’. Several names which do not include a divine name are considered to be theophoric names in which the divine element is omitted. For example, ^fṬābatu, which means ‘Good’, may be an abbreviated form of the attribute name ^fṬābatu-DN ‘(The goddess) DN is good’; for example, ^fṬābatu-Iššar ‘Iššar (Ištar) is good’. Similarly, ^fInbāya or ^fInbia, which consists of inbu ‘fruit’ with a hypocoristic suffix, may be a shortened form of ^fInbi-DN ‘Fruit of DN’.

2. 2) Familial relationships. There are two types of names expressing familial relationships. The first includes names such as ^fAḫāssunu ‘Their sister’. Such names simply indicate the relationship of the newborn child with her siblings. The name ^fAḫāssunu means that the name-bearer had two or more elder brothers or sisters. The other type consists of names such as ^fAḫāt-abīšu ‘Aunt’ – literally, ‘Sister of his father’. According to Johann J. Reference StammStamm (1939, 301–5), babies with this type of name were possibly considered to be a replacement for, or the reincarnation of, a recently deceased family member.

3. 3) Affectionate names. This type of name expresses the affection of the name-giver for the baby. Examples are ^fRēˀindu ‘Beloved one’, ^fNūptāya ‘Gift (of DN)’, ^fBuˀītu ‘Desired one’, and ^fBēlessunu ‘Their lady’. This category may include certain traits which the name-giver hoped for in the baby, such as ^fKāribtu ‘Prayerful one’ and ^fEmuqtu ‘Wise one’.

4. 4) Words for animals, plants, and objects. We find personal names inspired by animals for both genders. In the Neo-Babylonian corpus, most animal names for women refer to small wild animals, while fewer pertain to domestic animals. In the latter category, we have names such as ^fImmertu ‘Ewe’ and ^fMūrānatu ‘(Female) puppy’.Footnote ⁴ It seems that the most popular animal names for women were ^fŠikkû (or ^fŠikkūtu) ‘Mongoose’, ^fBazītu, which may refer to a kind of monkey, and ^fḪabaṣirtu (or, exceptionally with the masculine form, ^fḪabaṣīru) ‘Mouse.’ It is interesting to note that ^fŠikkû and ^fBazītu were only chosen for women. Grammatically, the terms šikkû and bazītu are feminine, which explains why they could only be used for naming a girl. ‘Mouse’ was also used for naming men. Thus, small animals, in particular those which are non-domestic, are principally chosen for women. We also find ‘Monkey’ (^fUqūpatu), ‘Dormouse’ (^fArrabtu), and ‘Wildcat’ (^fMurašītu) as female names. The masculine forms of these animal names were also used for men. The decision to name children after these small animals seems readily comprehensible, while it is more difficult to imagine why some babies were named ‘Turtle’ (^fŠeleppūtu) or were named after insects such as the locust (^fKallabuttu), the cricket (^fṢāṣiru), and the caterpillar (^fAkiltu; see Reference Cousin, Watai, Budin, Cifarelli, Garcia-Ventura and Millet-AlbàCousin and Watai 2018, 246).

   Plant names, mainly those of fruits and aromatic plants, such as ‘Juniper’ (^fBurāšu), ‘Bunch of grapes’ (^fIsḫunnu, ^fIsḫunnatu), ‘Hemp’ (^fQunnabatu), and ‘Pomegranate’ (^fLurindu), were popular female names. Apart from Burāšu, these names were apparently not given to men.

   Names based on accessories, such as ^fQudāšu and ^fInṣabtu, meaning ‘Ring’ and ‘Earring’, were frequently used for women of free status. We have found no evidence of their use for men.

5. 5) Physical characteristics, origins, or conditions of birth of a baby, such as ^fMīṣātu ‘Small one’, ^fUbārtu ‘Foreigner’, and ^fSūqaˀītu ‘The one found on the street’, are also referred to in women’s names.

6. 6) Negative names, such as ^fLā-magirtu ‘Disobedient’, appear occasionally. Reference StammJohann J. Stamm (1939, 205) described this name type as ‘tender censure’, but the actual circumstances of naming are usually unknown.

Hypocoristics, Abbreviated, and Double Names

Certain female names were often abbreviated. The most striking example is the name ^fIna-Esagil-ramât ‘She (a goddess) lives in Esagil’, which is frequently shortened to ^fEsagil-ramât with ellipsis of ina ‘in’. Another way of shortening personal names is found in the case of a woman called ^fAmat-Nanāya ‘Servant of Nanāya’, who appears as ^fAmtia in another text. The suffix -ia (/-ya), usually the possessive pronoun for the first person singular, is often difficult to distinguish from the hypocoristic suffix -ia. For instance, ^fAmtia does not mean ‘My female servant’; in such names, the -ia is a hypocoristic ending.

Archival studies reveal that some women bore two different names, both valid in legal texts. For example, a ^fKurunnam-tabni ‘Kurunnam created’ is also called ^fKuttāya (obscure meaning), a ^fBēlessunu ‘Their sister’ is also called ^fBissāya (obscure meaning), and an ^fAmat-Ninlil ‘Servant of Ninlil’ is alternatively called ^fGigītu (obscure meaning).Footnote ⁵ The practice of double naming is further discussed in Chapter 2.

Social Status

A number of personal names were given to women of free status as well as slave women, as observed by Johannes Reference HacklHackl (2013). Nevertheless, we can discern preferences in the name selection of free women and slave women. Overall, sentence names tended to be given to slave women (Reference Cousin, Watai, Budin, Cifarelli, Garcia-Ventura and Millet-AlbàCousin and Watai 2018). Certain names, especially those with the element silim accompanying a divine name, such as ^fNanāya-silim ‘Be friendly, O Nanāya!’ and the name ^fNanāya-bēlu-uṣrī ‘O Nanāya, protect (my) master!’, seem to have been reserved for slave women. Animal names, too, were primarily chosen for slave women; in particular, almost all women called ^fŠikkû ‘Mongoose’ and ^fḪabaṣirtu ‘Mouse’ were slaves. By contrast, certain names seem to have been chosen for free women, such as the aforementioned name ^fIna-Esagil-ramât and the similar name ^fIna-Esagil-bēlet ‘She is the lady in Esagil’. Other names for free women – if not exclusively given to free women – are, for example, ^fBēlessunu ‘Their lady’, ^fBuˀītu ‘Desired one’, ^fKaššāya ‘Kassite’, ^fInṣabtu and ^fQudāšu ‘Ring’ or ‘Earring’, ^fṬābatu ‘Good’, ^fNūptāya ‘Gift (of DN)’, ^fAmat-DN ‘Servant of DN’, and ^fRē’indu ‘Beloved one’. The name ^fKaššāya ‘Kassite’ was used mostly by elite women, including Nebuchadnezzar II’s daughter, although it is occasionally borne by non-free women as well. Thus, all names could have been given to all women regardless of social status, although each status had its own popular names. It remains to be studied which social and cultural values are reflected in these name choices for free and unfree women.

Geographical Origins

Some female names reflect the geographical origin of their bearers.Footnote ⁶ In the documentation from Babylon, the naophoric element – an element deriving from a temple name – ‘Esagil’ is frequently attested in female names, such as in ^fIna-Esagil-ramât ‘She lives in Esagil’ and in ^fIna-Esagil-bēlet ‘She is the lady in Esagil’. The Esagil temple was the main sanctuary of the god Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the king of the gods in first millennium BCE Babylonia. Other temple designations were also used in female names, especially in the names borne by oblates, such as ^fIna-Eturkalamma-alsišu ‘In the Eturkalamma temple, I called (the god)’ and ^fIna-Eigikalamma-lūmuršu ‘In the Eigikalamma temple, I want to see (the god)’.Footnote ⁷

Theophoric elements also indicate the geographical origin of individuals (see also Chapter 1). We can take the example of three minor female deities: the goddesses Zarpanītu, Aya, and Mammītu. Women called ^fAmat-Zarpanītu ‘Servant of Zarpanītu’ come from Babylon, in light of the fact that Zarpanītu is the divine spouse of Marduk. Likewise, women, who bear names with the theophoric element Aya, such as ^fAya-aqrat ‘Aya is precious’ and ^fAya-bēlu-uṣrī ‘O Aya, protect my master’, often come from Sippar or Larsa, two cities which housed an Ebabbar temple dedicated to the sun god Šamaš, the husband of Aya. The same is the case with Mammītu, divine spouse of the infernal god Nergal. Women who bore a name with this theophoric element usually originated from the city of Cutha, near Babylon, where the goddess was worshipped. Moreover, names with a reference to a major deity, such as the healing goddess Bābu, the goddess Ninlil,Footnote ⁸ the wife of Enlil, and the love goddess Nanāya, were often borne by women from the major cities of Nippur, Borsippa, Uruk, or Babylon.

Some names are more explicit about a person’s origins. We find, for example, women called ^fBarsipītu (‘Woman from Borsippa’), ^fGandarāˀītu (‘Woman from Gandar’), ^fIsinnāˀītu (‘Woman from Isin’), and ^fSipparāˀītu (‘Woman from Sippar’).

Gendered Theophoric Elements

Whereas some personal names are neutral names applying to both sexes, many names contain gendered elements. This is especially the case with gendered theophoric elements. Like verbs and their conjugations, they help to define the names as female or male. It seems that in Babylonia a whole range of male divinities was restricted to male names, including Adad, Anu, Bēl, Ea, Enlil, Marduk, Nabû, Nergal, Ninurta, Sîn, Šamaš, and Uraš. The major and most powerful male divinities of first millennium BCE Babylonia were thus used to name men (Reference Cousin, Watai, Budin, Cifarelli, Garcia-Ventura and Millet-AlbàCousin and Watai 2018, 248–51).

In accordance with the fact that male theophoric elements were usually only used to compose masculine names, some female divinities predominantly occur in names borne by women. They were minor goddesses, often consorts of great gods, or goddesses related to fertility, two qualities particularly ascribed to women. To the already mentioned Aya, Mammītu, and Zarpanītu, we can add Kurunnam, the goddess of beer, and Ninlil, Enlil’s consort. Some examples are ^fKurunnam-tabni ‘Kurunnam created’, ^fItti-Ninlil-īnāya ‘My eyes are set on Ninlil’, and ^fAmat-Ninlil ‘Servant of Ninlil’.

However, some theophoric elements referring to goddesses are used for men and women in the Neo-Babylonian period. This observation applies to major goddesses such as Ištar,Footnote ⁹ Nanāya, and the goddesses of medicine, Gula and Bābu. Ištar (as well as her other aspects, Anunnītu and Bānītu) was a goddess of passionate love, but also a warrior deity, a quality which complies with the Mesopotamian idea of masculinity. Finally, among goddesses who feature in both masculine and feminine names (Anunnītu, Bānītu, Bābu, Bēltu, Gula, Ištar, Nanāya, Ningal, and Tašmētu), we find several consorts of major male deities of the Babylonian pantheon (Marduk or Bēl, Nabû, and Sîn).Footnote ¹⁰

If the study of some personal names allows preliminary conclusions about gender identity in Babylonia, a few other names seem rather atypical. At least two women bear a name with the theophoric element Marduk and two men bear a name with the theophoric element Zarpanītu; they are Arad-Zarpanītu ‘Servant of Zarpanītu’ and Arad-Erua ‘Servant of (the goddess) Erua’ (both witnesses in Nbk. 76 and 106), ^fMarduk-ēṭirat ‘Marduk saves’ (a land owner in Cyr. 331), and ^fMarduk-uballiṭ ‘Marduk has kept alive’ (a woman who receives rations from a temple in Reference JoannèsJoannès 1982 no. 104).

Physical Characteristics

If certain physical qualifications can be referred to in names for both sexes, others were crucial for creating gendered identities of men and women. Masculine names referring to physical features single out strength (e.g., the family name Dannēa), power (e.g., the family name Lēˀêa), and prosperity (e.g., Nuḫšānu). Regarding women, their names recall physical aspects of baby girls and probably also of female appearance. Examples include ^fḪibuṣu ‘Chubby’, ^fKubbutu ‘Plump’, and ^fṬuppuštu ‘Very plump’. Some female names refer to the beauty and the attractiveness of the woman, as is the case with the names based on fruits and jewels that were discussed earlier. On the other hand, we do not find names referring to ugliness, whereas such names are attested in the Old Babylonian documentation (second millennium BCE), as in the case of ^fMasiktum ‘Ugly’.

There is also another group of names dealing with physical characteristics and anatomies, namely those referring to disabilities. This phenomenon is well attested in the Old Babylonian period, where one finds male names such as Sukkuku (‘Deaf’) and Upputu or Ubbudu (‘Blind’Footnote ¹¹). In the Neo-Babylonian period we can probably identify the name of a mute woman. A female slave bore the name ^fŠaḫḫurratu ‘Deathly hush’, which derives from the verb šuḫarruru ‘to be deathly still’ (Reference JoannèsJoannès 1989, 280–1).

Desired Characteristics

Three qualities reflected in personal names are shared by men and women: goodness, joy, and the value of the person. For the latter, we may refer to names formed with the verb (w)aqāru, with the masculine rendering Aqru and the feminine rendering ^fMaqartu ‘Precious’. The Egibi archive provides a lot of names of this type (Reference WunschWunsch 1993, Reference Wunsch2000a/b, and Reference AbrahamAbraham 2004). We can also quote the name ^fKabtāya ‘Honoured’, pointing to the importance of the person. Names referring to joy include Ḫaddāya ‘Joyful’ for men and ^fRīšat or ^fRīšāya ‘Joy’ for women. Goodness is expressed in names built with the verbs damāqu and ṭâbu, popular for both men and women. Names like Damqu, Damqāya, and Dummuqu were used for men. Being a grammatically neutral name, ^fDamqāya could also be applied to women. With the verb ṭâbu, the male name Ṭābia and the female names ^fṬābatu, as well as the superlative ^fṬubbutu ‘The very good one’, are built.

In addition, names related to personality traits could reflect the role and place of men and women in Babylonian society. Men were more likely associated with wisdom (e.g., Apkallu), loyalty and truth (e.g., Kīnāya ‘The faithful’), and mercy (e.g., Ḫan(n)an(u) ‘Merciful’).Footnote ¹² Epithets devoted to women often contain laudations. They include affectionate names, but also names symbolising their place in society. According to these names, women were supposed to be sweet (^fDuššuptu) and provide an anchorage for the family (^fḪamatāya ‘Help’; ^fIndu ‘Support’).Footnote ¹³ Furthermore, women were ideally kind (^fTaslimu ‘Friendly’), pure (^fḪiptāya), and obedient (^fḪanašu).Footnote ¹⁴ We also find the counterpart, ^fLā-magirtu ‘Disobedient’, as the name of a slave woman (Dar. 379). The very existence of this name suggests that such a personality trait was not desirable for a woman, a fortiori a slave woman.

Wishes and Blessings for the King

By far the most šarru-names have the pattern DN-šarru-uṣur ‘DN, guard the king’. Essentially the whole range of theophoric elements attested in the onomasticon appears in these names, from rare and mostly local deitiesFootnote ¹ to the ‘great’ gods of the dominant Babylon theology. Of the latter gods, Nabû is the most frequently attested in šarru-names, with Bēl second. Temple names can take the place of the theophoric element;Footnote ² infrequently, a variant with ina ‘in’ is found (Ina-Esagil-šarru-uṣur; BM 29311). Occasionally, the theophoric element reveals the non-Babylonian origin of the name-bearer. For instance, Yāḫû-šarru-uṣur was a Judean (CUSAS 28 2–4) and Milkūmu-šarru-uṣur probably an Ammonite (VS 3 53). Very rarely, a ‘house’ or ‘clan’ appears in the first place: the name of governor Bīt-Irˀanni-šarru-uṣur refers to the Irˀanni clan (Reference WunschWunsch 1993 no. 169).

Variants of the DN-šarru-uṣur type include:

Instead of an imperative, the verbal form can come in the preterite:

Rare names expressing a wish or blessing for the king are:

Finally, Šarru-lū-dari ‘May the king endure’, attested as the name of a qīpu official (CTMMA 4 136), expresses a wish without explicitly addressing a divinity.

Instead of the king, ‘kingdom’ (šarrūtu) can appear in names – for instance, in DN-kīn-šarrūssu ‘DN, establish his kingdom’, DN-šarrūssu-ukīn ‘DN established his kingdom’, and Tīrik-šarrūssu ‘Let his kingdom be long-lasting’.Footnote ⁴

Apart from the king, the crown prince is the only other member of the royal family who appears in names: DN-mār-šarri-uṣur ‘DN, guard the crown prince’ (BM 103477; a vice governor of the Sealand).

This name type falls out of use at the end of the fourth or very early in the third century;Footnote ⁵ in fact, the later Hellenistic onomasticon does not contain any šarru-names at all;Footnote ⁶ see the following section.

Blessings from the King

The second category of names – more varied than the first, but with far fewer attestations – focuses on the king not as the recipient of divine blessings implicitly requested by the bearer of the name, but as a fount of blessings in his own right. Functionally, the king replaces a divinity in such names. This is most explicit in the name Šarru-ilūˀaFootnote ⁷ ‘The king is my god’ (YOS 3 159; a rab musaḫḫirī official), but the fact also evinces clearly from the following name pairs.Footnote ⁸

Also in this type of name, the crown prince makes an appearance: Mār-šarri-ilūˀa ‘The crown prince is my god’ (YOS 7 195). Finally, it should be noted that the only Babylonian family name that invokes the king, LUGAL-A.RA.ZU(-ú), may belong to this name type. Its exact reading and interpretation are uncertain (Reference 92Wunsch, Krebernik and NeumannWunsch 2014, 310), but A.RA.ZU should stand for taṣlītu ‘prayer’ or for a form of ṣullû ‘to pray’.

None of the names in this second group, which cast the king in a (quasi-)divine role, comes from a source that post-dates 484 BCE (i.e., the major break in the continuity of Late Babylonian history). The first group, which invokes divine support for the king, on the other hand, continues (though with less frequency) beyond 484 BCE until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. To some degree, these are proxy data for the development of Babylonian attitudes towards kingship. For the long sixth century, the continuing relevance of traditional sacralised kingship cannot be doubted. Thereafter, it was no longer common to consider the king on a par with the gods. The pertinent names are no longer attested, even among the numerous Babylonians who had close ties to the royal administration and who occasionally would still bear names invoking the gods’ protection for the king. In the Hellenistic period, even this latter name type disappeared, probably because of the disappearance (from our view, at least) of royal officials of Babylonian origin.Footnote ⁹

First-Person Singular Preterite

First-person singular preterite forms are rare in Neo-Babylonian names. These elements are mostly spelled syllabically or the reading of the logogram is self-evidentFootnote ¹² because of extra elements (such as the preposition ana (muḫḫi) ‘to’ or the interrogative pronoun mīnu ‘what?’) or because the verb refers to a human action (e.g., šasû ‘to invoke’, ṣullû ‘to pray’). Names that use this verbal element generally express a lament or a statement of devotion by one of the parents. The following list contains all attested names of this type, of which the verbal element is written with a logogram:

1. - Mīnu-ēpuš-ilī ‘What did I do, my god?’ (ēpuš written DÙ)

2. - Ana-muḫḫi-DN-āmur ‘I looked towards DN’ (āmur written IGI)

3. - (Ana-DN-)(obj.)-ēreš ‘(From DN) I requested (obj.)’ (ēreš written KAM/APIN-eš)

4. - Ina-qibīt-DN-azziz ‘By order of DN I stood (?)’ (azziz written GUB(za/zu))

5. - DN-uṣalli ‘I prayed to DN’ (uṣalli written SISKUR_x)

Present Tense

Rarely, names contain a verb in the present tense instead of the more common preterite. Such names are usually spelled syllabically, in which case their interpretation is unproblematic, or the reading of the logogram is self-evident because of extra elements, rare verbs, or on semantic grounds.Footnote ¹³ Names in this category generally express a question, a character trait of the deity, or a statement of devotion. The following list includes all attestations of this name type, of which the verbal element is written with a logogram:

1. - DN-kittu-irâm ‘DN loves the truth’ (irâm written ÁG)

2. - Ša-Marduk-ul-inni ‘What is of Marduk does not change’ (tenni/inni written BAL)

3. - Ileˀˀi-(obj.)-DN / DN-obj.-ileˀˀi ‘DN is able (to …)’ (ileˀˀi written DA/Á.GÁL)

4. - Lâbâši(-DN) ‘I will not be put to shame (, DN)’ (lâbâši written NU.TÉŠ)

5. - Irâš-ana-Akītu/Esagil ‘(S)He rejoices over Akītu/Esagil’ (irâš written SÙ)

6. - DN-qajalu-išemme ‘DN hears the attending’ (išemme written ŠE.GA)

7. - Nabû-maqtu-idekke ‘Nabû raises the fallen’ (idekke written ZI)

8. - Abī-ul-(t)īde ‘I do/(S)He does not know my/the father’ ((t)īde written ZU)

Long Names With or Without a Theophoric Reference

Most names consist of one, two, or three elements (see Table 6.3) and the rules set out later in the chapter pertain to these common names. Three-element names without a theophoric reference (DN) and four-element names often contain a preposition, an interrogative pronoun, or another unique element that makes these names easily recognisable. There are no set rules for interpreting the verbal element of such names; only common sense or familiarity with the Babylonian name repertoire will help determine the correct reading. Some examples include:

1. - Lūṣi-ana-nūr-Marduk ‘May he come out to the light (of?) Marduk’ (Lūṣi written È)

2. - Nergal-ina-tēšî-eṭir ‘Nergal, save from confusion’ (eṭir written SUR/KAR)

3. - Zēr-kitti-līšir ‘May the true heir prosper’ (līšir written GIŠ/SI.SÁ)

4. - Nabû-ina-kāri-lūmur ‘May I see Nabû in the harbour’ (lūmur written IGI)

5. - Nabû-itti-ēdi-alik ‘Nabû walk(s?) with the lonely!’ (alik written DU)

Inverted Names

There are a few names that deviate from the standard Akkadian word order (subject-object-verb). A rare name type follows the word order object/subject-verb-DN. It is found in only four names so far: Zēru-līšir-Nusku ‘Nusku, may the heir be in good condition!’ (subj.-prec.-DN, hapax, līšir written SI.SÁ), Atta-tale’’i-Bēl ‘You are capable, Bēl’ (subj.-pres.-DN, hapax, syll.), Lētka-idi-Zarpanītu ‘Zarpanītu, give your attention!’ (obj.-imp.-DN, hapax, idi written ŠUB), and Aḫu/Aḫḫē-iddin-Marduk ‘Marduk granted (a) brother(s)’ (obj.-pret.-DN, iddin written MU/SUM.NA). The most interesting category of inverted names follows the word order DN-verb-object. The verbal element in such names takes the form of an imperative: Sîn-rīmanni-aḫu (hapax, when not a scribal error; ‘Sîn, grant me a brother!’), Nabû-zuqup-kīnu ‘Nabû, support the true (heir)!’ (zuqup written GUB), Nabû-uṣur-napištī ‘Nabû protect my life!’ (uṣur written PAB/URÙ), and Nabû-šukun-rēmu ‘Nabû, place compassion!’ (šukun written GAR). The name Nabû-uṣur-napištī might hint at the reason for the inversion. This phrase was part of a well-known mirror-like expression DN, uṣur napištī, balāṭa qīša ‘DN, protect my life, health grant (me)!’ popular on seals in first millennium BCE Babylonia.Footnote ¹⁴ Poetic use is also attested for the sequence zuqup-objectFootnote ¹⁵ and šukun-object,Footnote ¹⁶ which might explain the inversion in the names DN-zuqup-kīnu and DN-šukun-rēmu. In short, deviation from the normal word order in Neo-Babylonian names was a rare phenomenon and one that may have had its origin in the wish of the name-giver for poetic euphony.

One-Element Names Consisting of Only a Verbal Element (v.)

Nearly all one-element names are spelled syllabically or with a phonetic complement that makes their reading self-evident. The only signs that may represent a one-element name without a phonetic complement are substantives, including infinitives. Only four names are presently known that are written with only a logogram: ^IGI (Šullumu ‘Well-being’), ^IKAR (Šūzubu ‘To save’), ^IŠU (Gimillu ‘Favour’), ^ITIN (Balāṭu ‘Life’). These logograms cannot represent verbal adjectives because none of these verbs appear in this form in either the name format verb.adj.-DN or DN-verb.adj. In other words, *Šullum-DN, *Šūzubu-DN, *Gamil-DN, and *Baliṭ/Balṭu-DN are not found in the repertoire of Neo-Babylonian names.Footnote ¹⁷

Two-Element Names Consisting of a Verb Preceded by a Deity’s Name (DN-v.)

When the logogram represents a ‘birth’ verb, it should be rendered in the preterite 3.sg. as the deity is the subject of the verb. ‘Birth’ verbs are verbs that describe the god causing the birth of the newborn child – for example, to create, give, return, replace, etc.Footnote ¹⁸ Sometimes the ancient scribe indicated the correct reading by adding a phonetic complement to the verbal logogram (e.g., DN-iqīša ‘DN gave’, written DN-BA-šá),Footnote ¹⁹ but often no such markers were used. The following list contains all attested names of this type, of which the verbal element is written only with a logogram:

1. - DN-ibni ‘DN created’ (written DN-DÙ)

2. - DN-iqbi ‘DN commanded’ (written DN-E or DN-DUG₄)

3. - DN-utīr ‘DN returned’ (written DN-GUR)

4. - DN-iddin ‘DN gave’ (written DN-MU or DN-SUM.NA)

5. - DN-ukīn ‘DN established’ (written DN-GIN or DN-GI.NA)

6. - DN-erība ‘DN replaced’ (written DN-SU)

There are four more signs that may represent ‘birth’ verbs in Neo-Babylonian names, but only when they are used without an object: DN-GI (DN-ušallim ‘DN brought to gestation’),Footnote ²⁰ DN-KAR (DN-ušēzib ‘DN let leave to posterity’),Footnote ²¹ DN-SIG₍₁₎₅ (DN-udammiq ‘DN showed favour (to the parents?)’), and DN-TIN (DN-uballiṭ ‘DN kept alive and in good health’).

In all other names – that is, when the logogram represents a verb that is not a ‘birth’ verb – it should be rendered in the precative (‘May DN … !’ or ‘DN, may … !’) or as a participle (‘DN is the one who … ’):

1. - DN-līšir ‘DN, may (the child) prosper’ (written GIŠ or SI.SÁ)

2. - DN-lūmur ‘May I see DN’ (written IGI)

3. - DN-lēˀû ‘DN is the one who is capable’ (written Á.GÁL or DA)

4. - DN-kāṣir ‘DN is the one who strengthens’ (written KÁD or KÀD)

5. - DN-tāriṣ ‘DN is the one who stretches over (to protect)’ (written LAL)

6. - DN-ēṭir ‘DN is the one who saves’ (written SUR)

7. - DN-gāmil ‘DN is the one who spares, is merciful’ (written ŠU)

8. - DN-nāṣir ‘DN is the one who protects’ (written ÙRU or PAB)

Two-Element Names Consisting of a Verb Followed by a Deity’s Name (v.-DN)

When the logogram represents a ‘birth’ verb in the D/Š-stem, it should be rendered as a participle.Footnote ²² The following list contains all attestations of this name type, of which the verbal element is written with a logogram:

1. - Mudammiq-DN ‘The one who treats kindly is DN’ (written SIG₍₁₎₅)

2. - Mukīn-DN ‘The one who establishes is DN’ (written GIN or GI.NA)Footnote ²³

3. - Mušallim-DN ‘The one who keeps well is DN’ (written GI)

4. - Mušebši-DN ‘The one who brings into being is DN’ (wr. GÁL(-ši)/TUK(-ši)/TIL)

5. - Mušēzib-DN ‘The one who saves is DN’ (written KAR)

When the logogram represents a ‘birth’ verb in the G-stem, it should be rendered in the preterite 3.sg.: Iqīša-DN, Ibni-DN, Iqbi-DN, Iddin-DN, and Erība-DN. In these names, the verbal element is spelled and translated in the same way as names of the type DN-iqīša discussed earlier.

In the remaining names of this type the verbal logograms should be rendered as a noun: Nisḫur-DN ‘Benevolent attention of DN’ (NIGÍN), Gimil-DN ‘Favour of DN’ (ŠU), and Nūr-DN ‘Light of DN’ (ZALÁG). These readings are based on instances where ancient scribes used both a syllabic and a logographic spelling for the same individual’s name.

Two-Element Names Without DN Written with Two Logograms

Here we can observe how Neo-Babylonian scribes helped their readers make sense of onomastic logograms in other ways than by using phonetic complements. Whenever a name consists of two verbal forms (v.-v.), the first element (always a preterite or perfect 2.sg.) was spelled syllabically: for example, ^Ita-at-tan-ÙRU (Tattannu-uṣur ‘You have given (the child), now protect (it)!’) and ^Itaq-bi-SI.SÁ (Taqbi-līšir ‘You commanded (the child’s birth), may it prosper!’). This practice indirectly helps the reader make sense of names with two logograms. When the first logogram can only represent a verb (a participle), the second logogram must be an object; vice versa, when the second logogram can only be an object, it follows that the first one must be a verb (a participle), because had the name consisted of two verbal elements, the first had been spelled syllabically. In a similar vein, when both logograms could be verbs (e.g., MU-GIN), the second logogram has to be the verb and the first one the object, in accordance with the normal word order of Akkadian sentences (subject-object-verb).

The transcription of the name then depends on whether or not the verb is a possible ‘birth’ verb: if it is, the verbal form needs to be rendered in the preterite 3.sg.; if it is not, it needs to be rendered in the imperative or precative. Note that the common name spelled MU-PAB/ŠEŠ is an exception: this name should be read Nādin-aḫi ‘The one who gives a brother’ (participle-object) rather than *Šumu-uṣur, even though the theophoric name spelled DN-MU-PAB/ÙRU is to be read DN-šumu-uṣur ‘DN protect the name!’.

Three-Element Names Written DN-Logogram-Logogram

The rules for reading such names are similar to those for two-element names of the type logogram-logogram discussed in the previous section. When the first logogram can only represent a verb, the name should be read DN-participle-object. The same applies if the second logogram can only represent an object. In all other cases the name is of the type DN-object-verb. If the verb is a possible ‘birth’ verb, the verbal logogram should be rendered in the preterite 3.sg. If it is another type of verb, it should be rendered as an imperative or a precative (-līšir, -lūmur, or -libši). The following list contains all attestations of the latter name type, of which the verbal element is written with a logogram:

1. - (DN-)qātēšu-ṣabat ‘(DN,) Seize his hands!’ (written DAB)

2. - (DN-)aḫḫē-šullim ‘(DN,) Keep the brothers well/in good health!’ (written GI)

3. - (DN-)mātu-tuqqin ‘(DN,) Put the country in order!’ (written LAL)

4. - (DN-)aḫu-bulliṭ ‘(DN,) Keep the brother alive and in good health!’ (written TIN)

5. - (DN-)kudurru-uṣur ‘(DN,) Protect the heir!’ (written URÙ/PAP)

Ambiguous Spellings

Sometimes scribes did not follow the rules for writing verbal Sumerograms in names. Upon closer inspection such apparent exceptions can often be explained from the context. For instance, the name spelled DN-GI should normally be read DN-ušallim (see Introduction to this chapter), but when the syllabically written name DN-mu-šal-lim had already been used in a previous line, the scribe could use DN-GI as a (lazy) repeat later on (BaAr 3, BM 46544:4, r. 18).

Other ambiguous spellings are found in the limited group of family names – for example, ^Id30-SIG₅ is to be read Sîn-damqu not Sîn-udammiq – or in texts with limited readership. For instance, in letters we may not know how to read the name ^IBA-DN (OIP 114 35:1; Iqīša-DN, normally spelled BA-šá-DN, or Qīšti-DN, normally spelled NÍG.BA-DN), but for the senders and addressees it was obvious who was meant; neither did the scribe need to be careful or unambiguous for legal reasons. The same applies to lists of personnel produced for internal administrative purposes: these individuals were well-known in the institutions that employed them. For the same reason, the name of Borsippa’s chief temple administrator Nabû-nādin-šumi could be spelled in shorthand (Nabû-MU-MU; TCL 12 9:26 and TMH 2/3 12:23) instead of the ‘correct’ spelling Nabû-SUM.NA-MU or Nabû-na-din-MU. Nabû-MU-MU is normally to be read Nabû-šumu-iddin, but this individual was so well-known in the city that confusion was unlikely.

Permissible Names

Finally, we should recall that ancient readers were intimately familiar with the repertoire of names. This knowledge helped them make sense of ambiguous spellings. As an example, we can take the sign DU. This logogram could represent at least three different verbs: it could be read DU for the verb alāku ‘to go’, GIN for the verb kânu ‘to be true, permanent’, and GUB for the verb i/uzuzzu ‘to stand’. All three verbal forms are found in Neo-Babylonian names, sometimes even in the same name format. Nevertheless, the ancient scribe and reader will have had no problem recognising the spelling DN-GIN-A as DN-mukīn-apli ‘DN is the one who firmly establishes the son’, and DN-DU-IGI as DN-ālik-pāni ‘DN is the one who walks in front’ and not *DN-kīnu/kittu-lūmur, ‘May I see the true (heir)/truth!’ nor *DN-mukīn-pāni ‘DN is the one who establishes the front’. Although theoretically possible, these last names did not exist. Similarly, they will have identified DN-GIN-ÙRU/PAB as DN-kīnu-uṣur ‘DN, protect the true/legitimate (heir)’ because the name *DN-mukīn-ahi ‘DN is the one who firmly establishes the brother’ was not part of the Neo-Babylonian name repertoire.