Within the corpus of the Somavaṁśin dynasty from Odisha, consisting of fortyeight records, the ruling king is very often referred to by two distinct names to which honorific and sectarian titles are affixed. Indeed, he is generally called in the date section by his personal name and in the notification part by his coronation name,1 the latter generally alternating between Mahābhavagupta and Mahāśivagupta. These coronation names ending in -gupta are almost never used alone, but are often found together in a long compound and are linked by the expression pādānudhyāta, whose meaning has been discussed by Ferrier and Törzsök (2008). From this meaning, one can argue that the issuer king uses the whole compound in order to legitimate his position by a direct succession from father to son. Although this practice seems to be attested in all the land donations made by the kings of this dynasty, the coronation name does not always appear in donations made by third parties, and seems to be absent from stone inscriptions. Also noteworthy is the fact that the coronation names are totally absent from Indraratha’s record, even though a detailed genealogy has confirmed his legitimacy. Surprisingly, the same Indraratha is omitted in the genealogies of his successors. Is the coronation name only the result of a religious consecration ceremony? Does it contribute to a claim of legitimacy? Or is it simply reserved for direct succession from father to son? If this coronation name confers legitimacy, why is it not mentioned systematically? Does its presence indicate a political stability and its absence the opposite? This paper will seek to track the use and to determine the functions and the scope of the coronation name within the Somavaṁśin dynasty. It will be based on a diachronic and synchronic study of the different names used by the Somavaṁśin kings to designate themselves and of those used by their contemporaries, whether relatives or subordinates. For this survey, all the published sources available today have been consulted.