What Is a Cartouche? The Ancient Egyptian Symbol of Royal Power

A cartouche is an oval frame that encloses Egyptian hieroglyphs representing a name, most famously, the name of a pharaoh.

In Ancient Egypt, a name wasn’t just a label. It was tied to identity and permanence, so the cartouche wasn’t “just design”; it visually isolates the name and was understood as a protective enclosure around it.

In this article, we’ll describe the symbol and then explore how that meaning is made wearable today through the VarVar Cartouche of Nebkheperura pendant.

What is a cartouche

In hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an elongated oval with a short line at one end, a visual marker that says: what’s inside is a royal name.

The enclosed text is not regular writing. It’s a pharaoh’s royal name (part of the official royal titulary).

The earliest cartouches appear toward the end of the Third Dynasty, and they become a standard royal convention at the start of the Fourth Dynasty (often linked with Sneferu). Egyptians called the form shenu (“to encircle”), and later writing systems (like Demotic) simplified the cartouche into more bracket-like signs.

The modern term “cartouche” is much later: French soldiers in Napoleon’s Egypt campaign popularized the name because the oval reminded them of a gun cartridge.

Why Pharaohs put names inside an oval

In Egyptian thinking, the name was a core part of the person’s identity and continuity - something worth preserving so it couldn’t be erased from memory.

That’s the logic behind the cartouche as a boundary: it doesn’t just display the name, it contains it.

Cartouche and the Shen ring connection

The cartouche is widely interpreted as an elongated form of the shen ring, a loop symbol associated with “encircling,” infinity, and protection.

The shen ring’s closed loop naturally maps to infinity.
“Encircling” expands into protection: what’s inside the loop is guarded.
Stretch that loop into an oval around a name, and you get the cartouche, eternal protection applied to identity.

Which names went inside a cartouche

In practice, two key royal names are the ones most associated with cartouches:

Throne name (prenomen) - the regnal name used in official rule.
Birth name (nomen) - the “Son of Ra” name tied to the ruler’s personal identity.

That’s the modern bridge to jewelry! VarVar’s pendant uses Nebkheperura (Tutankhamun’s throne name) specifically as a wearable “royal-name cartouche” with protection/eternity framing built into the symbol.

Who is Nebkheperura?

Nebkheperura is Tutankhamun’s throne name, the official name used in formal contexts, not the “Tutankhamun” name most people say today.

Why people wear cartouche jewelry today

People choose cartouches for meaning that’s still practical in modern life, and that is the reason we created this piece. So, here is the meaning behind:

Identity: “My name matters” / “I stand for something.”
Protection: the “bounded” symbol reads like a personal perimeter.
Legacy: a direct bridge to an ancient civilization’s visual language.
Leadership archetype: authority, responsibility, status (without needing to say it out loud).
Reinvention: the “kheper / becoming” layer makes it a wearable symbol of transformation.

Cartouche of Nebkheperura Pendant

The VarVar Jewelry team created this pendant as a symbol of royal authority, divine protection, and eternal life, with an explicit connection to the Shen ring idea of continuity / immortality.

The pendant will be a perfect gift:

For the history-lover who wants something accurate, not costume.
For the Egypt-obsessed friend who knows the difference between myth and motif.
For someone who’s into symbolism (identity, protection, and becoming).

Conclusion

A cartouche is simple in shape but heavy in meaning: name, identity, authority, and protection by design.
If you want that meaning in wearable form, explore the Secrets of Egypt collection, especially the Nebkheperura cartouche pendant that carries the throne-name message in a clean, modern talisman form.