Anubis is the Greek form of the Egyptian god name associated with mummification and the afterlife.
Anubis is one of the oldest personal names in human civilization, derived from the ancient Egyptian deity Inpu (or Anpu), the jackal-headed god who presided over mummification, embalming, and the weighing of the heart in the Hall of Two Truths. The Greek form "Anubis" — the version familiar to most Western audiences — comes from the Hellenistic period, when Greek scholars and traders encountered Egyptian religion and transliterated Egyptian names into their own alphabet.
His role was not sinister but sacred: Anubis guided souls through the Duat (the underworld), ensuring the dead received the proper rites for their journey into eternity. Anubis was one of the most widely worshipped deities in ancient Egypt, and his cult spread throughout the Roman Empire following Egypt's conquest — Roman soldiers and traders carried devotion to Anubis as far as Britain, where votive objects bearing his image have been excavated. In modern culture, Anubis has experienced a sustained renaissance through novels, comics, video games, and film: he appears prominently in Rick Riordan's "Kane Chronicles," in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods," and in countless fantasy properties that have helped younger generations see Egyptian mythology as vividly as Greek or Norse.
As a baby name, Anubis is genuinely rare but growing — part of a broader willingness among parents to reclaim mythological names once considered too weighty to place on a child. For families with Egyptian heritage or a deep love of ancient history, it is a name with thousands of years of sacred meaning behind it: a guardian's name, a guide's name.