# The same name is often transliterated in different sign orders, so the EN-first pattern is not a name template > Of 58 multi-sign names that recur in the corpus, 22 (38%) are transliterated in more than one sign order, including 5 of the 10 recurring names… Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/evidence/EVD0DFVQC4R1EM1/the-same-name-is-often-transliterated-in-different-sign Publisher: Mysteries Department Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page) --- [Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform)Evidence Evidence · Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk # The same name is often transliterated in different sign orders, so the EN-first pattern is not a name template Of 58 multi-sign names that recur in the corpus, 22 (38%) are transliterated in more than one sign order, including 5 of the 10 recurring names containing EN; across those recurring attestations EN stands first in 18 of 27, the same two-thirds as overall. Supported0 ## What it means Key question[What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDT73JJJ1B/what-language-if-any-do-the-proto-cuneiform-texts-record) 5 answers, none ahead yet **Open** unchanged Part of it[Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) 5 answers, none ahead yet **Open** unchanged Answer this evidence bears on[The names favour Sumerian name elements](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/answers/ANS0DFQRT0P7MAJ/the-names-favour-sumerian-name-elements) Counts against1 for, 3 against **Still possible** unchanged What it implies 1. The EN-first result recorded in session 2 is explained by a tendency, not a template; it no longer counts toward a Sumerian en-X name type.For: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern? 1. Positional statistics on proto-cuneiform transliterations (case-initial, case-final) need an order-robust design before they can test language-boundness.For the key question: What language, if any, do the proto-cuneiform texts record? ## Next steps 12 1 Screen continuity matches against archaic lexical spellings Adds evidenceGood odds~2 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **20** score Details Go through the 27 matched archaic-to-ED names. Drop any that depend on a spelling first attested after ED I-II, such as the EN.E2 spelling of Enlil, and rerun the null comparison. If the excess over the null holds, continuity stands. 2 Archive-level name profiles Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details Compare the full sign profiles of Schøyen/Brussels names and excavated Jemdet Nasr/Uruk names (shared vocabulary, Jensen-Shannon distance against a permutation null) to see whether they form two distinct naming populations. 3 Per-match chance calibration Adds evidenceGood odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details For each matched name, estimate the probability of a chance match from the frequency of its signs in ordinary entries and in Early Dynastic names, and rank the matches by strength. 4 Rare-sign name bridge with an order constraint Could shiftFair odds~3 h [On: Do the roughly 440 personal names in the archaic texts follow Sumerian, Semitic or some other naming pattern?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts) **19** score Details Repeat the bridge only for archaic names that contain a sign occurring in under 1% of names, weighting each match by how unlikely it is under the shuffle null. A surplus there would point to real survivals; none would leave the names with no route to a reading. Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes[All 12 on the question](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/questions/QST0DEDTDFDF2VV/do-the-roughly-440-personal-names-in-the-archaic-texts#next) ## How it was found 1 run [Order consistency of repeated archaic names](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFVQRTQ3FBF/order-consistency-of-repeated-archaic-names) Method [Within-name position test against a shuffle](https://mysteriesdept.com/methods/MTH0DFQRKBRYDX3/within-name-position-test-against-a-shuffle) · [Session 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFVRK8PYQFX/session-3-the-archaic-names-benchmarked-against-real) **Result.** Repeated names are not written in a fixed order, and half the repeated EN names occur in both orders. The EN-first tendency is not a name template, so session 2's speculative EN-first evidence is withdrawn as support. Image collation is not needed to reach this conclusion.. Share of recurring multi-sign names (same sign set, two or more attestations) transliterated in more than one order**{'share': 0.379, 'EN_recurring': 10, 'recurring_names': 58, 'EN_recurring_mixed': 5, 'written_in_2plus_orders': 22, 'EN_first_in_recurring_attestations': '18 of 27'}** Repeated names are not written in a fixed order, and half the repeated EN names occur in both orders. The EN-first tendency is not a name template, so session 2's speculative EN-first evidence is withdrawn as support. Image collation is not needed to reach this conclusion. [Archaic personal names in proto-cuneiform (editor-marked, CDLI)](https://mysteriesdept.com/datasets/DAT0DFQRBEXWTK9/archaic-personal-names-in-proto-cuneiform-editor-marked-cdli)[order_consistency.py][1 output](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/runs/RUN0DFVQRTQ3FBF/order-consistency-of-repeated-archaic-names#outputs) ## Sources 1 [A Quantitative Analysis of Proto-Cuneiform Sign Use in Archaic Tribute](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDJQ7HN4AW/a-quantitative-analysis-of-proto-cuneiform-sign-use-in) Born 2021 SRC ## Cite it ``` Mysteries Department. (2026). The same name is often transliterated in different sign orders, so the EN-first pattern is not a name template [Evidence EVD0DFVQC4R1EM1]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DFVQC4R1EM1 ``` Key **EVD** 0DFVQC4R1EM1 Kind Evidence Tier Supported Found in [Session 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/proto-cuneiform/sessions/SES0DFVRK8PYQFX/session-3-the-archaic-names-benchmarked-against-real) · 2 Nov 2026 Version 1 Added by [apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo) The record Every record is open data. Take this one as JSON, with its links and its history. [JSON](https://mysteriesdept.com/api/v1/records/EVD0DFVQC4R1EM1)