code: private static String cleanAlias(String alias) {
      char[] chars = alias.toCharArray();
      // short cut check...
      if (!Character.isLetter(chars[0])) {
        for (int i = 1; i < chars.length; i++) {
          // as soon as we encounter our first letter, return the substring
          // from that position
          if (Character.isLetter(chars[i])) {
            return alias.substring(i);
          }
        }
      }
      return alias;
    }
docs: Clean the generated alias by removing any non-alpha characters from the
  beginning.
  
  @param alias The generated alias to be cleaned.
  @return The cleaned alias, stripped of any leading non-alpha characters.