Is the a set way to convert gender in Egyptian names, like turning Henry to Henrietta in English?
Hmmm? No. Unlike English and Latin, and even Arabic, modifying the suffix is not the only way gender is represented, it, et and at were suffixes used to represent females such as as Bek (male) Beket (Female) and Neb (male) Nebat (Female), Nebit (Female). The
at suffix was used as a prefix as well...
Many male names were prefaced by Si, such as
Si-Amun
Which translates to (Son of Amun)
for females, at...
Sat-Amun means (Daughter of Amun)
Ankh-Sun-Amun correctly pronounced as ANAK-SOON-AMOON (From the mummy movie with Brendan Frasier, she was Imhotep's Mistress. translates to Anhk (Immortal, Life, Living) Sun (Daughter/Sister of) Amun (the Sun God)
Sun and Sat are both used as Daughter in ancient Egyptian. Sat refers to daughter, and Sun refers to daughter/sister (wife, also possibly daughter... maybe a young wife?).
Feminine Deities or Goddesses also had separate naming conventions.
Ancient Egyptian names were based on Glyphs or signs, and the glyphs or signs were representations of real objects that were visible. Female and male were different, so the glyphs (And the pronunciation of the Glyphs) for them were different. In fact some words were exclusively used for (and by) females only.
Then the Greeks resettled Egypt under Ptolemy (Alexander's Best General) and changed things even more. Greek names of Egyptian Deities followed by their older ancient Egyptian names in parenthesis:
Anubis (Anpu)
Hathor (Het-Heru)
Horus (Heru)
Isis (Aset)
Neith (Niyt)
Nepthys (Nebt-het)
Ra (Re)
Thoth (Tehuti)
words were also used...
Soul - Ka
Immortal, Life, Living - Ankh
Truth - Maat
Good, Beautiful - Nefer
Sky, Heaven - Ptah
So, for example Per-ao Ka-Ankh would literally translate to:
The Great House of the Soul of Life
It was the Greeks who changed Per-ao to Pharoah, and so on... Between male and female Prefixes were also changed, suffixes were changed,and in many cases completely different words are used making the language even more complex, although the Greeks tended to use less words.
I have a book of translated Glyphs sitting around somewhere, I could also scan those glyphs and give you a few of these names as straight Heiroglyphs. Because it's a pictorial language ancient Egyptian is much easier to learn than many modern languages.
Ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphic Writing
http://www.eyelid.co.uk/hiero1.htm
Hieroglyph Lessons
http://hieroglyphs.net/0301/cgi/pager.pl?p=01
List of glyphs, Alphabetically cross-referenced
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs_by_alphabetization
Serapis is one of the few examples of a Graeco-Egyptian god. Serapis was devised during the 3rd century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. The god was depicted as Greek in appearance, but with Egyptian trappings, and combined iconography from a great many cults, signifying both abundance and resurrection. His cult was spread as a matter of deliberate policy by the Ptolemaic Pharoahs, who also built a splendid Serapeum in Alexandria (Re-created using models and in art for the Cleopatra/Alexandria exhibit I saw at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History a few years back). Serapis continued to increase in popularity during the Roman period, often replacing Osiris as the consort of Isis in many non-Egyptian temples. The destruction of the Serapeum by a mob led by the Patriarch Theophilus (Jewish born Coptic-Christian) of Alexandria in 389 is one of the key events in the downfall of ancient paganism (Also the subject of a recent movie,
Agora). The Serapis cult ceased to exist with the abolition of paganism in 391 AD.
The Christians and their Roman friends were punished for their transgressions and sins however, as in 405 AD, a Tsunami completely wiped out Alexandria. One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria toppled and fell because of the earthquake that proceeded the tsunami. Most of the Royal Quarter as well as what what left of the Serapeum was submerged under 2-5m of water as the coast of North Africa sunk by that amount, and it was around this time, that the Tomb of Alexander the Great (previously open to the public by the Ptolemaic Pharoahs as well as the Romans) was lost, but not before some of Alexanders personal items had been looted by both Augustus and Caligula. (My pet theory is that Alexander's Tomb was located adjacent to the Egyptian Royal Quarter most of which is now located in the Bay of Alexandria).
Alexandria remained the capital, however the petty squabblings of the remnant of Alexandria's population was quelled by the arrival of Muslims under the banner of Mohammed in 641 A.D.