Note on the name of king Narmer

Abstract

The name of Narmer (n'r-mr), king of Upper Egypt in the late predynastic period (ab. 3000 B. C.), has remained a mystery for long millennia. The first component of the name is clearly identical with n'r "Weis (catfish)" (OK, Med., Gr., Wb II 209, 2-6). But the second element -mr has so far been lacking a reliable and convincing etymological explanation on the Egyptian lexical material. In this brief paper we attempt to give a solution for the second component of the name in the Common Afrasian (Semito-Hamitic) lexical material. First, we can also admit that the Egyptian vocabulary does not help too much to clarify -mr, as there is no Egyptian word to fit in the name.