Enki

Enki is the epithet-title given to Ea, the Lord who dictates the narrative of his memoir to Endubsar (See Attestation).

Semantics
Enki (cuneiform: 𒀭𒂗𒆠, Sumerian: dEN.KI(G)) is commonly translated "Lord of the Earth". The Sumerian En is translated as a title equivalent to "lord", and was originally a title given to the High Priest. Ki means "earth", but there are theories that ki in this name has another origin, possibly kig of unknown meaning, or kur meaning "mound".
 * EN.KI

In Sumerian E-A means "the house of water", and it has been suggested that this was the original name for the shrine dedicated to the god at Eridu, at the main temple E-abzu. The cult of the EA god was adapted by the Canaanites, namely the Hittites and Hurrians. The name ‘Ea’ replaced Enki in later Akkadian and Babylonian mythologies. The West-Semitic root *hyy meaning "life" as related to "spring", "running water" has been compared to 'Ea'.
 * E.A

Historiography
‘Ea’ can be traced 6,500 years ago in the Sumerian language as E-A, meaning “the house of water”. E-A was the original name of the shrine at Eridu, related to the E-abzu temple, that later became dedicated to Enki. Eventually, use of Enki (meaning “Lord Earth”) declined, and was replaced as ‘Ea’ in later Akkadian and Babylonian mythologies.

Enki was the patron god of the city of Eridu. The main temple to Enki was called E-abzu, "abzu temple" (also E-en-gur-a, meaning "house of the subterranean waters"). It was a ziggurat surrounded by Euphratean marshlands near the ancient Persian Gulf coastline at Eridu, being the first temple known to have been built in Southern Iraq. Four separate excavations at the site of Eridu have demonstrated the existence of a shrine dating back to the earliest Ubaid period, more than 6,500 years ago.
 * Deification

proposed that the original non-anthropomorphic divinity at Eridu was not Enki but Abzu. The emergence of Enki as the divine lover of Ninhursag, and the divine battle between the younger Igigi divinities and Abzu, may have inspired the E-abzu (the underground waters of the Aquifer), to become the place in which the foundations of the temple were built. P. Steinkeller advocates that, during the earliest period, Enki had a subordinate position to a goddess (possibly Ninhursag), taking the role of divine consort or high priest. The attributes of Abzu would then later be absorbed by Enki over time.