ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1036
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1036
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From: 
24 Jun 1998


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wrote to us asking about the origin of the name <Ozymandias>, outside
of the poem by that name.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, in the 1st C BC, described the
funerary temple of Ramses II, at Thebes, as the "Tomb of Osymandias".  The
name is a corruption of Ramses II's prenomen; his name is given as
<Usermare Ramses>, and he lived in the 13th century BC. [1,2]

You might also be interested in Old English <Osmund>, Old Norse
<A/smundr>, and Germanic <Ansemund>, <Ausmund> or <Aurmund>.  The latter
are occasionally Latinized to <Osmundus> in the 9th-11th centuries [3]. 
These names are unrelated to <Osymandias>, of course, but they do
sound similar.  If you decide to use one of these names and would like
information on how to construct a name using it, please contact us again.

We hope this has been helpful, and that we can continue to assist you.
Arval Benicouer, Talan Gwynek, and Lothar von Katzenellenbogen
contributed to this letter. 

In service,
--Walraven van Nijmegen
Academy of S. Gabriel

[1] "Ramses II" Britannica Online [Accessed 16 May 1998]
    http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/493/83.html

[2] "Ramesseum" Britannica Online [Accessed 16 May 1998]
    http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/493/55.html

[3] Marie-Therese Morlet, _Les Noms de Personne sur le Teritoirre de
    l'Ancienne Gaule du VIe au XIIe Siecle_ (Paris: Centre National de la
    Recherche Scientifique, 1972)