It was at this time that Erech received the name of " the City," which it continued to bear when written ideographically.
Fortunately, in the case of a large number of names occurring on business documents as the interested parties or as scribes or as witnesses - and it is through these documents that we obtain the majority of the Babylonian-Assyrian proper names - we have variant readings, the same name being written phonetically in whole or part in one instance and ideographically in another.
Certain classes of names being explained in this way, legitimate and fairly reliable conclusions can be drawn for many others belonging to the same class or group. The proper names of the numerous business documents of the Khammurabi period, when phonetic writing was the fashion, have been of special value in resolving doubts as to the correct reading of names written ideographically.
Ideographically he is represented by two signs signifying "child of the day" (or "of the sun") which is a distinct allusion to his original solar character.
A second name of the city, which perhaps originally denoted a separate village or quarter, was Su-anna, and in later inscriptions it is often represented ideographically by E-ki, the pronunciation and meaning of which are uncertain.