I looked at it for a while ... it's difficult to say how I would have construed it, given that I already KNEW it was "Hector".
But ... just looking at that first letter, there is one thing which is ABUNDANTLY obvious ... and that it that it has two parallel upright strokes, not one.
I know of only three English capital letters with two parallel upright strokes: H, N and M
Once you have eliminated those that it cannot be ... N and M ... then the solution that it must be an H with the bar raised a little way does seem pretty obvious.
With the benefit of hindsight.
As for "ee" or "ec" ... well, the letters are differently formed, so they are not the same letter.
l or t? Well, it it doesn't have a cross-bar, then the following letter has a dot over it. But the following letter is neither an i nor a j, so the upright letter in the middle of the word its a t not an l.
Are we nearly there yet?
(As I say though ... all this IS starting out KNOWING it is Hector ... which makes it easy to see. Not so sure I would have got there without knowing it in advance ... and that's what makes transcription such an exacting task.)
