Cartouche

In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche (/kɑːrˈtuːʃ/ kar-TOOSH) is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name.

Demotic script reduced the cartouche to a pair of brackets and a vertical line.

[3] At times amulets took the form of a cartouche displaying the name of a king and placed in tombs.

The oval surrounding their name was meant to protect them from evil spirits in life and after death.

[5][need quotation to verify] The term "cartouche" was first applied by French soldiers who fancied that the symbol they saw so frequently repeated on the pharaonic ruins they encountered resembled a muzzle-loading firearm's paper powder cartridge (cartouche in French).

A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom.
Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh Seti I , from KV17 at the Valley of the Kings , Egypt. Neues Museum , Berlin