- Origin: Ancient Egyptian
- Meaning: “the most beautiful one; the beautiful one has come.”
- Gender: Female
- Eng pron: (NEF-er-TAH-ree)
The name comes from the Ancient Egyptian elements, nfrt-jrj. The first element nfrt means “beautiful,” the second element jry means, “the one who is near.”
Nefertari was most famously borne by Queen Nefertari Meritmut, the beloved Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Ramses II (19th Dynasty, 13th century BCE). Her elaborate tomb in the Valley of the Queens is among the best-preserved monuments of the New Kingdom.
After the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, Egyptian high culture became heavily Hellenized. Names like Cleopatra, Arsinoe, and Berenike (Greek) dominated the elite. With the rise of Christianity and later Islam, names shifted almost entirely to Biblical (Greek, Hebrew, Latin) Arabic. As a result, “Nefertari” remained locked in the Pharaonic past, only rediscovered in the 19th century by archaeologists.
In the 1980s, the name started to be used sporadically by African Americans. In 2024, at least 3 baby girls in the U.K were bestowed this ancient gem as a given-name.
In Coptic, this name would be rendered as ⲛⲉⲫⲣⲧⲁⲣⲓ (Nephrtari). In modern Egyptian Arabic, it is نفرتاري (Nifirtārī).
This may be due for a comeback, especially if you are of Egyptian descent.
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