Signing with a Fish

In yesterday’s daf, Bava Batra 161b:

וְדִלְמָא סִימָנָא בְּעָלְמָא הוּא דְּשַׁוְּויֵהּ! דְּהָא רַב צָיֵיר כְּווֹרָא, רַבִּי חֲנִינָא צָיֵיר חֲרוּתָא, רַב חִסְדָּא סָמֶךְ, רַב הוֹשַׁעְיָא – עַיִן, רָבָא בַּר רַב הוּנָא – מָכוּתָא! לָא חֲצִיף אִינָשׁ לְשַׁוּוֹיֵהּ לִשְׁמֵיהּ דַּאֲבוּהּ סִימָנָא.

Rami bar Ḥama challenges further: But perhaps the witness made this name into a mere distinguishing mark that he uses as his signature, as it is known that Rav used to draw a fish as his signature mark, rather than signing his name, and Rabbi Ḥanina used to draw a palm branch as his signature mark, and Rav Ḥisda used to sign just the letter samekh, and Rav Hoshaya used to sign just the letter ayin, and Rava bar Rav Huna used to sign his name by drawing a ship’s mast [makhota]. The Gemara answers: A person is not so insolent as to use his father’s name as a distinguishing mark.

There is a difference to me between signing a name (like Yaakov), or even mere letters, vs. signing a symbol. Like, if it was the family crest, or Superman using the mark of El.

Rav signing his name with a fish

This has no real justification or evidence, but it sounds plausible to me. Note the letters samech and ayin in the same order they appear in our aleph bet. Also note that a כְּווֹרָא is a fish, and a nun, the letter which precedes samech, also means fish.

If Rav drew depiction of the meaning of the letter, then maybe Rav Chisda and Rav Hoshaya did so as well. The Assyrian script, Ktav Ashuri, is fairly divorced from the original symbols which represented the letters name. Paleo-Hebrew, Ktav Ivri, were more interpretable as symbolizing the item. So an aleph was an ox-head (consider shegar alaphecha) and so on. Maybe during these Amoraim’s time, it would be the cursive Aramaic script.

So, I am imagining that rather than write a נ for nun, Rav used a stylized nun that was fish-like. And Rav Chisda used a samech / support pillar, and Rav Oshaya this circle. I don’t know about the others, and whether there is an appropriate letter than is associated with their name and looks like what is described.