diff --git a/demos/er.html b/demos/er.html
index f1233e19f..eabae6acf 100644
--- a/demos/er.html
+++ b/demos/er.html
@@ -112,12 +112,12 @@
 
     <pre class="mermaid">
     erDiagram
-      p as Person {
-        string firstName
-        string lastName
+      p[Person] {
+          string firstName
+          string lastName
       }
-      a as "Customer Account" {
-        string email
+      a["Customer Account"] {
+          string email
       }
       p ||--o| a : has
     </pre>
diff --git a/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md b/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
index 5bc8df436..ea3b8c005 100644
--- a/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
+++ b/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
@@ -200,15 +200,15 @@ The `type` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits
 
 ### Entity Name Aliases (v\<MERMAID_RELEASE_VERSION>+)
 
-An alias can be added to an entity using `as` keyword. If provided, the alias will be showed in the diagram instead of the entity name.
+An alias can be added to an entity using square brackets. If provided, the alias will be showed in the diagram instead of the entity name.
 
 ```mermaid-example
 erDiagram
-    p as Person {
+    p[Person] {
         string firstName
         string lastName
     }
-    a as "Customer Account" {
+    a["Customer Account"] {
         string email
     }
     p ||--o| a : has
@@ -216,11 +216,11 @@ erDiagram
 
 ```mermaid
 erDiagram
-    p as Person {
+    p[Person] {
         string firstName
         string lastName
     }
-    a as "Customer Account" {
+    a["Customer Account"] {
         string email
     }
     p ||--o| a : has
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.jison b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.jison
index 843fd9910..ea8abc21a 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.jison
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.jison
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ accDescr\s*"{"\s*                                { this.begin("acc_descr_multili
 <block>[\n]+                    /* nothing */
 <block>"}"                      { this.popState(); return 'BLOCK_STOP'; }
 <block>.                        return yytext[0];
+"["                             return 'SQS';
+"]"                             return 'SQE';
 
 "one or zero"                   return 'ZERO_OR_ONE';
 "one or more"                   return 'ONE_OR_MORE';
@@ -62,7 +64,6 @@ o\{                             return 'ZERO_OR_MORE';
 \-\-                            return 'IDENTIFYING';
 "to"                            return 'IDENTIFYING';
 "optionally to"                 return 'NON_IDENTIFYING';
-"as"                            return 'ALIAS';
 \.\-                            return 'NON_IDENTIFYING';
 \-\.                            return 'NON_IDENTIFYING';
 [A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9\-_]*         return 'ALPHANUM';
@@ -114,15 +115,15 @@ statement
       }
     | entityName BLOCK_START BLOCK_STOP { yy.addEntity($1); }
     | entityName { yy.addEntity($1); }
-    | entityName ALIAS entityName BLOCK_START attributes BLOCK_STOP
+    | entityName SQS entityName SQE BLOCK_START attributes BLOCK_STOP
       {
           /* console.log('detected block'); */
           yy.addEntity($1, $3);
-          yy.addAttributes($1, $5);
+          yy.addAttributes($1, $6);
           /* console.log('handled block'); */
       }
-    | entityName ALIAS entityName BLOCK_START BLOCK_STOP { yy.addEntity($1, $3); }
-    | entityName ALIAS entityName { yy.addEntity($1, $3); }
+    | entityName SQS entityName SQE BLOCK_START BLOCK_STOP { yy.addEntity($1, $3); }
+    | entityName SQS entityName SQE { yy.addEntity($1, $3); }
     | title title_value  { $$=$2.trim();yy.setAccTitle($$); }
     | acc_title acc_title_value  { $$=$2.trim();yy.setAccTitle($$); }
     | acc_descr acc_descr_value  { $$=$2.trim();yy.setAccDescription($$); }
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
index c23e31876..a480e50e5 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/diagrams/er/parser/erDiagram.spec.js
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ describe('when parsing ER diagram it...', function () {
     it('can have an alias', function () {
       const entity = 'foo';
       const alias = 'bar';
-      erDiagram.parser.parse(`erDiagram\n${entity} as "${alias}"\n`);
+      erDiagram.parser.parse(`erDiagram\n${entity}["${alias}"]\n`);
       const entities = erDb.getEntities();
       expect(entities.hasOwnProperty(entity)).toBe(true);
       expect(entities[entity].alias).toBe(alias);
diff --git a/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md b/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
index 71d91bab7..f2a5d5481 100644
--- a/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
+++ b/packages/mermaid/src/docs/syntax/entityRelationshipDiagram.md
@@ -146,15 +146,15 @@ The `type` values must begin with an alphabetic character and may contain digits
 
 ### Entity Name Aliases (v<MERMAID_RELEASE_VERSION>+)
 
-An alias can be added to an entity using `as` keyword. If provided, the alias will be showed in the diagram instead of the entity name.
+An alias can be added to an entity using square brackets. If provided, the alias will be showed in the diagram instead of the entity name.
 
 ```mermaid-example
 erDiagram
-    p as Person {
+    p[Person] {
         string firstName
         string lastName
     }
-    a as "Customer Account" {
+    a["Customer Account"] {
         string email
     }
     p ||--o| a : has