That the names Tiglath-pileser (Tukulti-apil-Esûarra) and Pul (Puµlu) were used to designate the same ruler is no longer seriously questioned. The name Pul is often understood as Tiglath-pileser’s Babylonian throne name. Today, however, many Assyriologists understand it either as Tiglath-pileser’s original name or as a quasi-short form for the second element of the name Tiglath-pileser—apil. In either case, the term puµlu, péµlu, meaning “limestone block,” served in folk etymology as a pejorative nickname for the ruthless empire-builder.
