"Gebi," the man explained, "I've made up a set of four for His Majesty, Tjeti, and two for Her Majesty, Sekhmet. Ladies first..."

As he is an amusing man and fond of the ladies, I humored him and allowed him to put the Queen ahead of our living god.

He caught my smile and with one of his own, continued, "The first cartouche contains the name Sekhmet Meritamen. You will note, no doubt, that the Amen part of meritamen appears ahead of the Merit part: this is 'honorific transposition,' which is what one does when a word contains the name of a deity."

"The second cartouche results from the marriage to Tjeti, who is High Priest of Amen (Hm-nTr tpi n Imn). As Tjeti's wife, Sekhmet Meritamen is permitted the title of High Priestess of Amen, so the cartouche reads just that (Hmt-nTr tpi n Imn). note that the feminine ending 't' is written before the nTr of Hmt nTr, and that the nTr part comes before the Hm part. The former is 'graphic transposition,' because the 't' fits better to the eye, whereas the latter is another case of 'honorific transposition' wherein the word nTr, meaning God, takes precedence."

"His Majesty Tjeti's titles are somewhat more elaborate in that they have four of the typical five components."

"Before I begin, I should explain that I've chosen to use the djed pillars to form the name of 'Tjeti.' By our time,(43 BCE) phonological and scribal distinctions between D & d and T & t have blurred, almost to the point of fusion. Consequently, substitution is commonplace as the language has lost its purity."

I nodded my head sadly and agreed with my friend saying, "Whatever are things coming to in this day and age. Modernizations, I suppose are enivatable."

He quite agreed and after emitting a sigh, continued his explanation. "My reading of the Nisut, Tjeti, is that he is a man who would rather more incline to the imagery of stability and endurance as afforded by the djed, than he would to the image of bondage and femininity, as afforded by the tethering rope and the "bread-loaf t." If you disagree, or should he wish to have it changed when you reveal it to His Majesty, I'll be more than content to change that. Indeed,if either His Majesty Tjeti or Queen Sekhmet require any changes, I shall happily make them."

"First, we have the Horus name in a Serekh. This is 'Strong Bull, Son of Amen' (kA-nxt sA Imn)"

"Second, we have the nbty name, aka the Two Ladies name......"

"This is 'Tjeti, Nurtured by Amun' (Ddi Xnmt Imn)"

"Next, the n-sw-bit name or prenomen...."

"This is where I've taken the biggest liberty.... Tjeti comes across as a reluctant Per-A'a and something of a traditionalist. Also, his primary heart, so to speak, is to serve Amen. What I've done is taken the name and titles of the first of the High Priests of Amen at Thebes, from the 21st dynasty (one Herihor) and copied them. I may have the man wrong, but other perhaps than the name 'Herihor', I think he would approve. So, this prenomen is 'Herihor, son of Amen' (Hri-Hr sA Imn)

Finally, the sA Ra name or nomen....."

"This is again, straight from Herihor. Those pharaohs really didn't see themselves as born to Godhead, so they chose to emphasise their links to Amen. This is 'High Priest of Amen' (Hm-nTr tpi n Imn)"

I was delighted with the fine job that my friend had done and insisted that he and his friends stay for a night of entertainment and a delicious meal at my villa. His Majesty has only recently come to the throne of Kemet and so has not chosen his names and how they will be represented. I feel very confident that he will approve of what I show him.