Aslan
Masculine · “Lion”
Aslan is given to both — 1,720 boys and 90 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Aslan is the Turkish word for lion, and it has been carried by real rulers as well as a famous fictional one — the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan, whose name means "heroic lion," led armies in the eleventh century. C. S. Lewis borrowed the word straight from Turkish for the lion of Narnia, having found it in a footnote to a translation of the Arabian Nights. Two syllables, five letters, and a meaning almost everyone can hear.
How old is the name Aslan?
Aslan first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Aslan is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,700 people named Aslan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aslan most popular?
Aslan peaked in 2025, reaching #860 nationally. Today it ranks #860, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Arslan to Aslan
The story of Aslan
The word began as Old Turkic arslan and traveled with Turkic-speaking peoples from Central Asia into Anatolia, the Caucasus and Iran, softening to aslan in modern Turkish while keeping the r elsewhere. It served as a given name and an honorific for warriors and rulers — Alp Arslan, the eleventh-century Seljuk sultan, wore it as a title of praise — and it became a very common surname among Turks, Kurds and Armenians. In the twentieth century it reached English readers by a different road: C. S. Lewis, looking for a name for a lion, took the Turkish word itself. It is also long established as a first name among Chechens, Circassians and other peoples of the North Caucasus.
Meaning
Lion
From Turkish aslan, lion; the older Turkic form is arslan, still used across Central Asia.
How the name formed
- Arslan
- Alp Arslan
- Aslan
Related forms: Aslan · Arslan · Aslan · Arsalan · Аслан · Arslan
Pronouncing Aslan
ahss-LAHN
Turkish puts the stress on the second syllable. English speakers, especially those who know the Narnia books and films, often say AZ-lan or ASS-lan with the stress in front; both readings are widely heard in the US, so it helps to decide early which one you will correct people to.
Nicknames for Aslan
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 2025280 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #860reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +33.3%280 in 2025, from 210
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Aslan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aslan in Turkish — same name
- Arslan in Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen — related form
- Aslan in Azerbaijani — same name
- Arsalan in Persian, Urdu — related form
- Аслан in Russian (Cyrillic) — transliteration
- Arslan in Tatar — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Aslans among us
people named Aslan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,100 born in 2025 was named Aslan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aslan
- #860
- Aslan on the 2025 chart
- #485
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aslan went to 280 boys in 2025, but Azlan and Azlaan are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 551, which makes it the 485th most-given boys’ name of the year — 375 places above the chart.
- Aslan280
- Azlan234
- Azlaan37
About 1 boy in 3,100 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,100 for Aslan itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Deontae test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aslan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deontae climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deontae's path sketches the road Aslan is walking now.
Aslan is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Aslan is headed
Aslan looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 58% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Aslan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aslan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled exactly as it sounds in five letters, with no competing spellings to choose between.
- One transparent meaning — lion — known to any Turkish speaker and needing no explanation.
- In real use as a given name and surname across Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Iran and Central Asia.
- A documented literary anchor: Lewis took the Turkish word directly for the lion of Narnia, which makes the name recognizable to English readers.
- The Narnia lion is a strong association, and in Lewis's books he is an explicitly Christ-like figure. Some families welcome that resonance; others would rather the name not arrive pre-attached to a story.
- In English the first syllable can be heard as "ass," which is the kind of thing children find quickly. The Turkish stress, ahss-LAHN, mostly sidesteps it.
- Two pronunciations circulate in the US, and your child will spend some time choosing between them for other people.
- Still rare enough that most Aslans grow up as the only one they know — good for a name that never blurs, but expect to spell and explain it often.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Aslan
Masculine · #860 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aslans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Aslan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aslan?
- Aslan is the most-used spelling in US records — 280 of the 551 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Azlan and Azlaan.
- How popular is the name Aslan in 2025?
- Aslan ranks #860 among US boy names in 2025, with 280 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aslan?
- About 1 in every 6,100 US boys born in 2025 was named Aslan — 280 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aslan with classmates?
- Aslan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aslan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eddie#860 · Rex#859 · Lance#862 · Avyaan#858 · Stanley#863 · Evren#857 · Zev#864 · Conner#864
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aslan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Aslan and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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