Why did Amenhotep IV change his name to Akhenaten during his fifth regnal year?

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Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten—which means "One Useful to Aten"—during his fifth regnal year to align himself with his new religious focus.12

By this time, the king had elevated the Aten, the solar disk, as the central focus of his worship, moving away from the traditional supremacy of Amon. This name change was part of a broader religious and cultural revolution in which the pharaoh emphasized his own unique divinity and his role as the sole intermediary who possessed full knowledge of the god.324

Coinciding with this shift, the king began constructing a new capital city, Akhetaten, to serve as the center for the worship of the Aten, further distancing his reign from the established religious traditions centered at Thebes.42