And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was Laish at first (וַיִּקְרְאוּ שֵׁם־הָעִיר דָּן עַל־שֵׁם־דָּן אָבִיהֶם אֲשֶׁר־יֻלַּד לְיִשְׂרָאֵל וְשֵׁם־הָעִיר לַיְשׁ לִפְנֵיכֶן) — the Danites rename the conquered city ``Dan'' after their tribal patriarch. The renaming represents a form of taking possession: place-names legitimize territorial claims and commemorate conquests. The narrative's parenthetical note ``but the name of the city was Laish at first'' preserves the memory of the displaced people and the city's pre-conquest identity. Yet that memory is merely archival; Laish ceases to exist as a living community.

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