Hi Chris, There are a number of explanations offered for this, but here's my contribution:
1. Deities in the ANE sometimes had more than one name/title. The two forms could thus be legitimate variations. 2. A number of scholars consider ×××× itself to be an abbreviation of a sentence name (based on Ex 3:15), so perhaps abbreviating names was not so disrespectful as you suppose? (Obviously shortening Marduk to "Duck" would be an exception ;-) ). Martin Shields, Australia.
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