The identity of his father is currently unknown; some Egyptologists speculate it may have been Amenmesse rather than Seti II since both Siptah and Amenmesse spent their youth in Chemmis and both are specifically excluded from Ramesses III's Medinet Habu procession of statues of ancestral kings unlike Merneptah or Seti. This suggests that Amenmesse and Siptah were inter-related in such a way that they were "regarded as illegitimate rulers and that therefore they were probably father and son." However, another interpretation here is that Siptah was regarded as illegitimate by the later 20th dynasty kings since Siptah required the assistance of Chancellor Bay to secure the kingship since he was just another minor son of Merneptah rather than a direct son of Seti II.