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Baby names

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Original poster

Thoughts on the name 'Aslan'

295 replies

sel2223 · 12/01/2020 16:36

My OH is Turkish and we've trying to agree on a name for a little boy (we have a girls name already).

We want a Turkish name with no special characters that is easy to pronounce in both Turkish and English. Asian means 'lion' in Turkish and is also the name of the lion from the Chronicles of Narnia, which I love.

What do you think? Is it too 'out there'?

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Tsubasa1 · 12/01/2020 19:47

@raindropsfallingonglass what Christian undertones?...
Also, Aslan means lion in ARABIC, CS Lewis took the word from the arabic to use in his book. Its not like he wrote the book and then people started naming their kids Aslan to honour the character in the book. For thousands of years boys have been named Aslan across the arab world including Turkey. I have read a lot of responses on here that don't make sense to me.

TheGriffle · 12/01/2020 19:38

What about Zeheb? Means Gold I think. I also love Roshan as mentioned above.

BertrandRussell · 12/01/2020 19:38

“ However, with his Turkish heritage you could get away with it!”

Well, you could. If you think he would be happy being called “Aslan-no, it’a.
Turkish name and my dad’s from Turkey- nothing to do with Narnia” . Which is a bit long winded. My brother’s step daughter was called “Seven - no not the river, the number. It was my dad’s lucky number and I was born on the 7th of July” until she changes it when she was 11.

raindropsfallingonglass · 12/01/2020 19:38

I don’t think you can do Aslan, partly because of the overtly Christian overtones but also because of the anti-other-religions part of it too. Narnia is basically Islamophobic

Splodgetastic · 12/01/2020 19:38

@2223 every day’s a school day!

BackyardChickens · 12/01/2020 19:33

My daughter has a boy in her class called Aslan. It’s cute.

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:31

@Splodgetastic I'm learning all kinds of new things today. I had no idea about Maskhadov. Or the Irish rock band mentioned earlier....

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Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:30

@WelshMoth that's lovely to hear. Thank you.

@Splodgetastic I'm trying to avoid names beginning with T because that's what the surname begins with and I'm not a fan of double letters if you know what I mean.

@Browncoatwaffles the only issue with Erkan is that the 5 letter surname ends 'kan' too. Otherwise it's a lovely name

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Splodgetastic · 12/01/2020 19:28

@sel2223, of course Maskhadov was actually quite a moderate nationalist and what the Russians did in Chechnya was terrible, but he’s the only famous person I know with the name and I always think of the Chechen wars.

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:27

@Clangus00 dad is vetoing so many names, it's driving me crazy (although I'm vetoing a lot of his too). We are not on the same page at all with names. All of his suggestions are old fashioned and very traditional Turkish. He'd call him Mohammed if I'd let him.

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BrowncoatWaffles · 12/01/2020 19:27

@sel2223 @FinallyHere I knew a lovely guy called Erkan too! It’s easily pronounced too...

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:25

@Bigearringsbigsmile I don't personally like religious names as am not at all religious myself (Ironic, i know, since everyone is saying Aslan is religious but that's only due to a literary character, it's not actually from the bible or qu'ran)

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Splodgetastic · 12/01/2020 19:23

I like Timur that someone suggested upthread. It’s a fairly universally popular name in Turkic countries, as well as Russia and Ukraine, has no special characters or pronunciation issues and can be shortened to Tim in the UK if wanted. That said, maybe it’s not as masculine as Aslan.

WelshMoth · 12/01/2020 19:23

I teach an Aslan - I don't make any associations about his name. It helps that the lad is lovely and a pleasure to teach.

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:22

@Splodgetastic interesting. I'm not familiar with him but just reading up on him now.

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Clangus00 · 12/01/2020 19:20

Dad seems to be vetoing an awful lot of your suggestions.
What names is he bringing to the table?

Bigearringsbigsmile · 12/01/2020 19:20

what about an old testament name like Joseph which would be yusuf in turkey? So a shared root iyswim?
Jacob?

Splodgetastic · 12/01/2020 19:17

I know it means lion, but I always think of Aslan Maskhadov, so it’s forever associated with a Chechen warlord for me.

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:16

@bentnecklady thank you. I like karim but it's very similar sounding to the surname

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runwithme · 12/01/2020 19:13

We know an Aslan, and his parents are Turkish so there's never really been an association with Narnia for us.

BentNeckLady · 12/01/2020 19:11

I like it!

What about Karim

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:11

I actually really liked 'Erol Aslan' (brave lion) but OH hates Erol for some reason.

Turkish names all have strong meanings.

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BovaryX · 12/01/2020 19:08

Difficult to live up to. Given its literary religious overtones.

Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:08

@LilyJade Adnan is nice!

@FinallyHere I like Erkan too. I know lots of Ercan's (pronounced Er-jan) but no Erkans

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Original poster
sel2223 · 12/01/2020 19:05

I think it's amusing to hear the religious connotations as I am not religious at all and OH is Muslim (although Jesus did still exist according to Islam, just not in the same capacity).
We liked the name primarily as a Turkish name meaning lion. For me the cultural reference was just a cool 'extra' that set it apart from other names (OH has never even heard of TCON) but it's really interesting to hear everyone's views and is definitely making me think twice.

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