Akhenaten
/ˌækənˈɑːtən/noun
Akhenaten was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who promoted the exclusive worship of the sun disk Aten.
Did you know?Akhenaten abandoned the traditional gods, founded a new capital at Amarna, and was later subjected to a systematic memory erasure in Egypt’s official records.
Etymological Timeline
New Kingdom Egypt, 14th century BCE
Egyptian
ꜣḫ-n-jtn
“Effective, useful, or beneficial for Aten”
Before c. 1348 BCE
Egyptian
Amenhotep IV
“The king’s earlier name, meaning “Amun is satisfied””
c. 1348 BCE
Egyptian
Akhenaten
“The ruler’s adopted name, expressing devotion to and efficacy through Aten”
14th century BCE
Egyptian
jtn
“Aten, literally the visible solar disk or sun disk”
14th century BCE
Egyptian
ꜣḫt-jtn
“Horizon of Aten, the name of Akhenaten’s new capital, commonly rendered Akhetaten”
19th–20th centuries
Egyptology
Akhenaten
“The conventional scholarly and English form of the pharaoh’s name”