Entry № 3034 · Sumerian origin

Ereshkigal Ereshkigal — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ EH-resh-kee-gahl /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Sumerian
Meaning
"Sumerian queen of the underworld"
Syllables
4
First recorded
Ancient (Sumerian)

A name that means "sumerian queen of the underworld".

Ereshkigal (𒀭𒊩𒌆𒆠𒃲) is the Sumerian goddess queen of Irkalla, the underworld — elder sister of Inanna. Her name means "Queen of the Great Below." She rules the realm of the dead with implacable authority.

Featured in The Descent of Inanna, one of the oldest myths in human literature.

Queen of the Great Below. The Sumerian underworld.

The name in its native script.

𒀭𒊩𒌆𒆠𒃲
Transliteration
Ereš-ki-gal
Pronunciation
/ ˈɛ.rɛʃ.kiː.ɡɑːl /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Ereshkigal stands.

Ereshkigal does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Ereshkigals before her.

Real people
Ereshkigal
Sumerian goddess.
In fiction
Ereshkigal
Queen of the Sumerian underworld.
Sumerian mythology

Names connected to Ereshkigal.

The number behind Ereshkigal.

5

The Seeker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Ereshkigal reduce to 5, The Seeker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.