Entry № 6756 · Ethiopian origin

Mentewab Mentewab — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ men-teh-WAHB /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Ethiopian
Meaning
"Ethiopian queen regent (rebuilt Gondar)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Modern (Amharic)

A name that means "ethiopian queen regent (rebuilt gondar)".

Mentewab (ምንትዋብ, c. 1706-1773) means "how beautiful" in Amharic. The Empress consort and regent of Ethiopia — wife of Emperor Bakaffa, mother of Emperor Iyasu II — she effectively ruled the Ethiopian Empire for over 50 years through three reigns. Built the grand palace of Qusquam outside Gondar and was one of the great patrons of Ethiopian Orthodox church architecture.

Mentioned in the writings of the Scottish explorer James Bruce, who knew her personally.

How beautiful. Ethiopian empress-regent who ruled through three reigns.

The name in its native script.

ምንትዋብ
Transliteration
Məntəwwab
Pronunciation
/ mɛn.təˈwɑːb /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Mentewab stands.

Mentewab 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.

Mentewabs before her.

Real people
Empress Mentewab
Ethiopian empress-regent.
c. 1706 – 1773
In fiction
Mentewab
Featured in James Bruce's Travels.
1790

Names connected to Mentewab.

The number behind Mentewab.

2

The Peacemaker

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Mentewab reduce to 2, The Peacemaker. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.