Cuneiform scribes could use numerals to stand for syllables, words, and phrases. Such numerals most commonly served as a form of shorthand, but they might also be deliberately employed to conceal the true meaning of the text. As a shorthand for divine names, the practice was in use from the late third millennium B.C.E. through the end of cuneiform writing in the early Common Era (C.E.), with some gods represented by more than one numeral, particularly in different periods of time. Typically the name of a god was written with a numeral preceded by the cuneiform sign read dingir, Sumerian for "god," and rendered in modern transliterations as a superscripted letter d. The following is a list of numerals for some of the gods:

d1 = Ea, god of subterranean fresh waters.
d10 = Adad, storm god.
d15 = Ishtar, goddess of love...