Chapter 3 - Babylonian Female Names

Summary

This chapter discusses the typology and the social and gender aspects of Babylonian female names recorded in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods (626–330 BCE). As to typology, a distinction is made between names that constitute a sentence and those that constitute a noun. In both categories, further subdivisions are possible. As to the social use of female names, the chapter discusses how names indicate the social status and origins of their bearers. Although most female names were given to women of any social status, some names were typical of enslaved women. Finally, the chapter discusses the distinctions between male and female names.

A vast corpus of women’s names appears in the documentation from the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods (626–330 BCE). This chapter establishes a typology of Babylonian female names and discusses the question of whether and how female personal names contributed to the construction of a female identity, in contrast to a male identity.

Typology of Female Names

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.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.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 Hackl 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.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. Stamm (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’.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 Cousin 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. Johann 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).⁵ The practice of double naming is further discussed in Chapter 2.

Female Onomastics and the Construction of Social and Gender Identities

Social Status

A number of personal names were given to women of free status as well as slave women, as observed by Johannes Hackl (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 (Cousin 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.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)’.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,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 (Cousin 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,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).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 Joannès 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’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’ (Joannès 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 (Wunsch 1993, 2000a/b, and Abraham 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’).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’).¹³ Furthermore, women were ideally kind (^fTaslimu ‘Friendly’), pure (^fḪiptāya), and obedient (^fḪanašu).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.