Thoughts on the name 'Aslan'

[sel2223]

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'?

It’s not a bad name but I’d just think of the lion on the TV programme...

I like it and especially with the heritage it's a nice name.
I went to school with an alpaslan, which means mountain lion.

I think of the lion too and would think it was strange, but if you had Turkish roots I guess I’d understand more.

Naming child after a fictional character which dies horribly would be a no for me.

No, because Aslan in the LWW is supposed to be God.

I'd think it was very odd.

It’s really bad...

I like the name and I know one (Punjabi heritage). But white Brits will always associate it's with Narnia. And the weird religious connotations of that.

Sorry, not God but Jesus.

In one of his last letters, Lewis wrote, "Since Narnia is a world of Talking Beasts, I thought He [Christ] would become a Talking Beast there, as He became a man here. I pictured Him becoming a lion there because (a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; (b) Christ is called "The Lion of Judah" in the Bible; (c) I'd been having strange dreams about lions when I began writing the work.

No because in your post Aslan has autocorrected to Asian! The name isn’t recognised! I hate autocorrect though....!

At least it didn’t autocorrect to anything offensive or stupid right enough, but still, Asian isn’t his name.

My son went to school with a Aslan 30 years ago. I always thought it was a nice name.

Thanks everyone. It's so hard trying to find a name to suit both cultures!
I hate most Turkish boys names 🙈

It's the name of a friend's dog (GSD) so it's a no from me.

In this country it will always be the lion in Narnia, it's a very. very well known book, and I bet very few people will know it's a proper name in Turkish.

danyal?
Adam?

I like it - sounds as though it fits. So what if the character in LWW is supposed to be Jesus, plenty of people in Spanish speaking places are actually called Jesus!

Adam? Boring but fits.

Dilan?

Aslan, in the Chronicles of Narnia, is very clearly a Christ figure. That isn't necessarily a reason not to use the name, but needs to be borne in mind...

Thanks for the suggestions @Bigearringsbigsmile but OH hates Adem (turkish spelling of Adam) and our nephew is Daniel.

I do like Eren and Evren but OH hates them. He likes Hayat, Kadir, Kemal, Serkan and Hasan.

Raif?

It's also the name of a minor bit-part character in a novel I read recently. He was a cool TV runner/researcher I think.

My first thought when reading that was 'I'll there be a reference to Narnia?'

I like it but would never use it because it's just too linked to the Narnia books (I love them, but wouldn't saddle a child with such a distinctive character's name) However, with his Turkish heritage you could get away with it!

Its fine having a book character, but a book character who is an allegory for God? That seems weird to me.

@MrsTerryPratchett I like it but it would be pronounced differently in both countries

English- Ray-F
Turkish - Rah-eef

I really want something pronounced the same in both places so he won't have issues in either country as he gets older x