What is the meaning of or the reason for the great sphinxes name?

Answer 1

We do not know what name the creators used for the Great Sphinx. There is no known inscription of the Old Kingdom and there are no inscriptions anywhere describing its construction or its original purpose. The usually used name 'sphinx' was given to it about 2000 years after the accepted date of its carving, by reference to a Greek mythological beast with a lion's body, a woman's head and the wings of an eagle The English word 'sphinx' comes from the Ancient Greek 'sphingx' seemingly from the verb 'sphingo' which in English means 'I strangle' after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle. However, the name may alternatively be a corruption of the Ancient Egyptian 'Shesep-ankh' which was a name given to royal statues of the Fourth Dynasty - about 2575 - 2467 B.C. In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was also called 'Hor-em-akhet' meaning 'Horus of the Horizon' Pharaoh Thutmose IV specifically referred to it as such in his Dream Stele. However just like virtually everything to do with the pyramids and sphinx, nothing is certain.