On Sri Lankan names...

[suraj]

Many a time my Indian friends have asked questions about Sri Lankan names. Here, I attempt to answer some of the most common ones... Why do Sri Lankans have such long names? The Sri Lankan naming system is quite different from the western system. In the western system there are given names and a surname such as John Smith, where John is the given name and Smith is the surname. In the Sri Lankan naming system there is no such a thing called a surname. Instead, there is a clan name which appears BEFORE the given names. This is called the vaasagama which literally means "resident village." With the advent of the colonials, this naming system changed so that now there is such a thing as a 'surname.' The Sri Lankan clan name, like the western surname, is passed down from generation to generation (regardless of gender) and may contain any of the following - name of the ancestral village, rank in the village hierarchy, ancestors profession in the kingdom, physical feature of the village, titles given by the king. The clan name is identified like this... Take the name Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas Everything before the "ge" is the clan name whilst Ushantha + Joseph + Chaminda are the given names, and Vaas has become the "surname" owing to the western naming system. "ge" means two things in the Sinhalese language. It means (1) house (Hindi ghar) and also (2) indicates posession (Hindi ki, ka). Patabendi is a title conferred by the king to those in the military who do something special. It is analogous to the modern day Indian military medal Param Veer Chakra (incidentally the modern Sri Lankan equivalent is Parama Veera Vibushanaya). So it can be inferred that one of Chaminda Vaas's ancestors did something valiant in battle. 'Varna' refers to the Vedic hierarchy system and 'kula' means 'of noble' and 'suriya' means 'sun' So together it means somethins like "Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas of the House of the Sun of the Noble Caste With Military Honour" :winky: Another example: Hewapathiranage Nimal Devendra Ariyasinghe Hewa = lascoreen, Pathirana = Chief/Leader, Nimal = Pure, Devendra = King/Ruler of the Gods, Ariya = Noble, Sinha = Lion Put it all together and it means "Noble Lion, Ruler of the Gods from the House of the Chief of the Lascoreens." Now that you know the ins and outs of the Sri Lankan naming system, please do spare a thought for all those poor Sri Lankans who have to fill out forms... or spell out their pura naam to someone who is writing it down. I've been told that Andhraites and the Mallus have a similar naming system... Why do Sri Lankan guys have girls names like Ajantha, Anushka, Ruchira, Sameera? We don't. Seriously. Being Indic people, Sri Lankans by and large have names of Sanskrit/Prakrit origin. This is more so among the Sinhalese who speak an Indo-Aryan language which is in the same family as Hindi, Bengali Gujarati, Marathi etc [see: Similarities between Sinhala and Hindi ] . However, unlike many of other Indo-Aryan languages, Sinhalese has retained the Sanskrit pronunciation of Sanskrit names. For example, comparing proper names in Sanskrit --> Sinhalese --> Hindi: Sanjaya --> Sanjaya --> Sanjay Arjuna --> Arjuna --> Arjun Janaka --> Janaka --> Janak Aruna --> Aruna --> Arun Ruchira --> Ruchira --> Ruchir Rama --> Rama --> Ram Ravana --> Ravana --> Ravan Sameera --> Sameera --> Sameer Chandana --> Chandana --> Chandan Ishanta --> Ishanta --> Ishant You get the picture. The last "a" in Sanjaya is pronounced as "er" in "reporter", "cleaner", "hitter." Hindi has lost this inherent vowel. So Ajanta is accurately pronounced as "ajanter" not Ajantaa. Because the English alphabet is not really that great for representing the phonetic languages of South Asia and because many North Indian languages have lost the inherent vowel, confusion arises. But rest assured that Ajantaa is a girls name in Sri Lanka. So in Sri Lanka the guys name is always pronounced with the "er" and the girls name with elongated "aa" Thus Sameerer is a boys name but Sameeraa is a girls name Ajanter is a boys name but Ajantaa is a girls name Ruchirer is a boys name but Ruchiraa is a girls name Anushker is a boys name but Anushkaa is a girls name Manjuler is a boys name but Manjulaa is a girls name But both the male and female versions are spelt as "Sameera, Ajantha, Ruchira, Anushka and Manjula in English. Why do Sri Lankans have names like De Silva, Fernando, Perera? Blame the Portuguese. They were the first colonialists to rule large parts of the island (the Dutch and the British were the others) and the most antagonistic towards the natives :winky: Usage of Iberian names is almost exclusive to the Sinhalese, although there are some Tamils who do have them. Some of the Portuguese origin names in use are: Perera, De Silva, Fernando, Rodrigo, Mendis, Fonseka, De Mel, De Costa, De Almeida, De Chickera, Aloysius However, unlike in India where those with Portuguese origin names are very likely to be Christian, in Sri Lanka this is not the case. It is impossible to tell what religion someone with a Portuguese origin name belongs to. Although, since the Sinhalese follow either Buddhism or Christianity, you have a 50% chance of guessing it right. That's it :marchmellow: Dhanyavad for reading this. Mein Hindi seekh raha hai.

Very nice post Thank You Harry