A few months ago I was watching a documentary about cavemen (very impressive of me, actually). And in the documentary they were making the point that neanderthals were actually much smarter than we thought they were and they had families and loved each other and it was very beautiful. But as I was watching it, I kept seeing these recreations of cavemen scenes where they were gathered around fires or sharing food or walking and I wondered “How did the cavemen know how to tell each other apart? Did they have names?”

And then I started thinking some more.

“When did we even start having names? We definitely had them in the 1900s. And then we definitely had them in medieval times. How far back do names go?”

I started following this thread and trying to find somebody who could talk to me about it. I sent out dozens of emails, most of which received no response. I learnt that the name for the study of names is onomastics and there are only a few experts in the field around the world (as far as I could tell).

Fortunately, one such expert who specialises in names from thousands of years ago is Dr Julia Hamilton from Macquarie University! And I got to speak to her all about the names in Ancient Egypt.

Julia taught me about how Ancient Egyptians thought about their names, how they wrote them, and how some names that we have today originated all the way back in the time of pharoahs and pyramids! And you can listen to all of that right now.

If you’re extra curious about this topic then Julia is in the process of writing a book all about it, so keep your eyes peeled for its release in the future!