Ramesses (Egyptian name)
Ramesses (; these various spellings could be used to refer to the same person.
The various forms are based on the Greek (Ραμεσσυς: Ramessus), Latin (Ramesses), or Hebrew (רעמסס: Raˁamses, Raˁmeses) forms of the name, all ultimately based on the Ancient Egyptian form: rˁ-ms-sw (𓅭𓇳) "Ra [is] the one who gave birth [to] him".
The name (רעמסס: Raˁamses, Raˁmeses) occurs in the Hebrew Bible, not as the name of a king but rather the name of one of the two cities was built for the
Israelites (Exodus, 1:11), the other such city being Pithom. Thus, the name was known to Jews and Christians long before the advent of modern Egyptology. The city is now commonly identified as Pi-Ramesses (House of Ramesses), the new capital founded by Ramesses II
.
The convention of numbering kings who had the same name did not exist in Ancient Egypt, the numbers of the various pharaohs called Rameses were provided by modern scholars.
- 19th Dynasty
- Ramesses I: founder of the 19th Dynasty
- Ramesses II ("the Great")
- Prince Ramesses (prince), second son of Ramesses II
- Prince Ramesses-Meryamun-Nebweben, a son of Ramesses II
- 20th Dynasty
- Ramesses III: adversary of the Sea Peoples
- Ramesses IV
- Ramesses V
- Ramesses VI
- Ramesses VII
- Ramesses VIII
- Ramesses IX
- Ramesses X
- Ramesses XI