Our knowledge about Nebuchadnezzar's immediate family is quite good, especially compared to other Babylonian kings. He was the first-born son and designated heir of Nabopolassar. From royal inscriptions, chronographic texts, and economic texts, it is known that he had at least two brothers: Nabû-šumu-līšir and Nabû-zēru-ušabši.[[47]] Other siblings of his that he might have had are not mentioned in published texts. However, the names of five sons and two daughters are recorded in extant sources. His sons were Amēl-Marduk, Marduk-nādin-aḫi, Marduk-nādin-šumi, Marduk-šumu-uṣur, and Mušēzib-Marduk; Amēl-Marduk was his heir and successor. His daughters were Baba-asītu (or Baʾu-asītu) and Kaššaya. One of his daughters, possibly Kaššaya, was married to Neriglissar, a man who would later become king.[[48]] The name of his wife is not known from contemporary sources. In later, classical sources, Berossos states that Amytis, a daughter of the Median King Astyages, was Nebuchadnezzar's wife; this cannot yet be confirmed from cuneiform texts.[[49]]
47 Nabû-šumu-līšir is mentioned in Npl. 6 (C31) iii 14, and in the Chronicle Concerning the Early Years of Nebuchadnezzar II (lines 2´–4´; see below for a translation of this badly-damaged passage). Nabû-zēru-ušabši, on the other hand, is mentioned in economic documents; see, for example, Wiseman, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon pp. 7–8.
48 Berossos reports that Neriglissar married one of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters; see de Breucker, Babyloniaca p. 263 Berossos F10a. P.-A. Beaulieu (Orientalia NS 67 [1998] pp. 199–200) had proposed that this princess was most likely Kaššaya.
49 de Breucker, Babyloniaca p. 253 Berossos F8a. According to Ctesias of Cnidus (FGrH 688 F 9) Amytis was the wife of Cyrus II; see discussion in de Breucker, Babyloniaca, p. 474; see also Brosius, Women p. 39.
Jamie Novotny & Frauke Weiershäuser
Jamie Novotny & Frauke Weiershäuser, ' Family', RIBo, Babylon 7: The Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Dynasty, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2024 [/ribo/babylon7/RINBE11Introduction/NebuchadnezzarII/Family/]