In the 19th century it was thought by Egyptologists and historians to be the name of a king, because the scribes had placed the word sedjes inside a royal cartouche. But as knowledge about Ancient Egyptian phrasing and grammars advanced, scholars realized its true meaning: sedjes means "omitted" or "missing" with the scribes using the word as a pseudonym, replacing a now illegible name of a king. They encircled it with a royal cartouche to mark it as a king's name, but following generations of scribes erroneously took it as the actual birth name of the to-be listed king. A similar case can be observed with the ominous cartouche name Hudjefa, also used as a pseudonym for missing royal names. Today, it is passionately disputed which king of the 3rd Dynasty was meant to be denoted in cartouche No. 18.[2][3][4]
^Herman Alexander Schlögl: Das Alte Ägypten: Geschichte und Kultur von der Frühzeit bis zu Kleopatra. Beck, Hamburg 2006, ISBN3-406-54988-8, page 78.
^Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards: The Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 1, Pt. 2: Early history of the Middle East, 3rd volume (Reprint). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, ISBN0-521-07791-5, page 35.
^Jürgen von Beckerath: Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen. Deutscher Kunstverlag, München/Berlin 1984, page 49.