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'?

[runwithme]

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

[sel2223]

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

[Splodgetastic]

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

[Bigearringsbigsmile]

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

[Clangus00]

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

[sel2223]

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

[WelshMoth]

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.

[Splodgetastic]

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.

[sel2223]

@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)

[BrowncoatWaffles]

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

[sel2223]

@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.

[Splodgetastic]

@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.

[sel2223]

@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

[sel2223]

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

[BackyardChickens]

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

[Splodgetastic]

@2223 every day’s a school day!

[raindropsfallingonglass]

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

[BertrandRussell]

“ 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.

[TheGriffle]

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

[Tsubasa1]

@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.

[74NewStreet]

Seven... Why would any sane person give their child a number instead of a name? Shame the registrar didn’t refuse to indulge that nonsense.

[sel2223]

It seems Aslan is definitely a marmite name.
I suppose it's like any strong character name from a book or film (for very different reasons, I know lots of people would never name their child Damian for example l after the film of the same name!)

[raindropsfallingonglass]

@Tsubasa1 the overtly Christian undertones of Narnia. Yes Aslan is a traditional name, but I think most people will assume it has some connection with the book, and in the book Aslan is metaphorically god/Jesus. The Narnia books are openly racist, especially later in the series. I don’t think I would want that connection.

[sel2223]

@tsubasa1 very true. I think alot of people are thinking the name actually comes from TCON, as in CS Lewis actually made up the name. They don't realise it's originally a Turkish/Arabic name that's been used for a very long time.
I guess that's something DC would have to contend with if we live in the UK though

[Porpoises]

I've now changed my mind on reading the rest of this thread, I primarily associate it with Narnia, but if it's a common Turkish name, why should C S Lewis stop you using it? It's a lovely sound and cool meaning.

Depends whether you can be bothered to explain it to all the English people who have that first reaction, I guess.