Netjerkare may have been a king during the First Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

. His existence is only clearly attested on the Abydos King List

Abydos King List

The Abydos King List, also called the Abydos Table is a list of the names of seventy-six kings and pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, found on the walls of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches on each row...

, where he occupies the 40th registry, as the successor to Merenre Nemtyemsaf II

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II was briefly Pharaoh of Egypt, likely succeeding his long-lived father Pepi II Neferkare. The Turin King List says that Merenre reigned for only a year, after succeeding his father Pepi II. His name is also mentioned on a stela that was discovered near the site of the pyramid...

, skipping over the female king Nitocris

Nitocris

Nitocris has been claimed to have been the last pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty. Her name is found in the Histories of Herodotus and writings of Manetho but her historicity is questionable. She might have been an interregnum queen...

. Possibly Nitocris was removed from the list, since neither Sobeknefru or Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut also Hatchepsut; meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

 are on it either, however another possibility which is growing in popularity is that Nitocris never existed, and her name in hieroglyphics, Nitekreti, is a corrupted version of Netjerkare. This is suggested because it appears that Nitekreti was part of the praenomen of a male king named Siptah on the Turin Canon, who Netjerkare probably is.