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In vol. 11, Eiji asks Ash about his real name while they are on the Staten
Island ferry. Ash claims that his first name, Aslan, is a Hebrew word
referring to daybreak.

> **Eiji:** Remember what you told me once? That your mother gave you your
> name — your real name, "Aslan". It's not a common name … What does it mean?
>
> **Ash:** It's an ancient Hebrew word that was used in prayer. It means
> "daybreak," cuz I was born at dawn.

But as far as I can tell, the Hebrew word for dawn is שחר ( _shachar_ ). I
tried guessing various Hebrew spellings that could be read as Aslan and
looking those up on the internet, but I haven't yet found anything convincing.
Aslan also happens to be a variant of [a real Turkic
name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aslan_\(disambiguation\)) that means
"lion," so Ash's etymology could also be the result of author error. I am not
proficient in Hebrew or Aramaic, however, so I'm not sure if I'm missing
something. Is there any truth to Ash's claim at all?


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T01:52:55.933
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2020-04-28T15:48:19.907
2020-06-17T09:17:53.303
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banana-fish
Is Ash's explanation for the origins of his name correct?


Yes, this quoted dialog response by Ash is incorrect.

Aslan is not even a Hebrew word, it is a Turkish word, and it does not mean
"daybreak" in Hebrew. Daybreak can be "shachar" (שחר) as you found, which is a
very common name, or "zricha" (זריחה) which is the action of the sun arriving,
and isn't used as a name.

Aslan, in Turkish, means a lion, and it is used a lot for names, even in
Hebrew (not very common, but we do have this name as last name), this might be
the source of confusion for that author.


CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-16T06:45:44.887
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answer