spelled as Ḫu-bi-bi, which seemingly reflects the pronunciation /Ḫuppipi/. On lexical grounds it is presumed that similar reading of the name, even when it was written as Ḫu-wa-wa, might have also been the norm elsewhere in Syria, for example in Alalakh, as well as in Hittite and Hurrian sources, which might indicate Ḫuppipi was the default form in both north and west of the Mesopotamian cultural sphere of influence. Unique forms showing inflection are attested in copies from Ugarit (nominative Ḫu-ba-bu, genitive Ḫu-ba-bi) and from Assyria from the Middle Assyrian period (accusative Ḫu-ba-ba and genitive Ḫu-be-be). Additionally abbreviated forms, Ḫuwa and Ḫu, are known from an Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh presently belonging to the Schøyen Collection. Many of the variants of Humbaba's name are attested both with and without the so-called "divine determinative" (dingir). Examples of its use have been identified in texts from Kish, Ur, Nerebtum, Susa and possibly Larsa and Shaduppum. A fragment of a Hurrian literary text using it is also known. However, no sources indicate that Humbaba was necessarily regarded as a god. In modern literature, he is variously described as an "ogre", "demon" or "giant". In a passage from one of the Old Babylonian copies of the Epic of Gilgamesh, he is described as ḫarḫaru, based on context presumably "ogre", "monster" or "freak". He is generally portrayed as anthropomorphic. Humbaba’s name shows no obvious signs of specific linguistic affiliation and its meaning is unknown. Similarly structured names are sometimes referred to as “banana names” in Assyriology. It is sometimes assumed that they belong to a linguistic substrate, but this view is not universally accepted, and it is not certain if all of them come from the same language. Frans Wiggermann instead suggests that Humbaba’s name might have originally been an onomatopoeia: he argues he was in origin an apotropaic grinning face hung on doors to ward off evil, with his name being a representation of the sounds he was believed to make. He assumes the myths involving him served as an etiology meant to explain this custom. The phonetically similar names of a stone, na5ḫúb-be-be, and a lizard, ḫuwawītum, were both derived from Humbaba's own. Disproved proposals While such a possibility has been suggested in older scholarship, the name Ḫumḫum does not refer to Humbaba, but to an unrelated minor god worshiped in Dūr-Šarrukku, as attested in a text from the