• ‘Resplendent Isle’  

From Skt/Pal: śrī, ‘resplendent’, ‘beautiful’, ‘glorious’ and Skt:laṅkā, ‘island’; and the name of the royal city and island of Rāvaṇa as described in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

In 1978 the former Dominion of Ceylon was officially renamed the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

• Tambapanni/Taprobane ‘Copper’

From Skt/Sin: tāmra/tamba, ‘copper’, ‘copper-coloured’; Skt/Pal: varṇī (parṇī)m ‘colour’; Skt/Pal: pāṇi, ‘hand’; or Skt/Pal: pānīya, ‘water’.

According to the legend of the Mahavamsa Prince Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhala dynasty here, grasped the earth of the shore where they landed and his hands turned to a copper-red. The city was named Tambapanni, a name which came to identify the island as a whole. The Greeks called it Tabrobane/Taprobana [Gk: Ταπροβανᾶ/Ταπροβανῆ].

• Sarandib/Sinhaladvipa/Sielendipa

From Sinhala and Skt: dvīpa, ‘island’

Most of the European variations were derived from this form [Lat: Seelan, Por: Ceilão, Spa: Ceilán, Fre: Ceylan, Dut: Zeilan, Eng: Ceylon].

Ceilão was the name given the island by the Portuguese when they arrived in 1505 and under the British this became Ceylon. Sinhala was the name name of the dynasty founded by Prince Vijaya [Skt: siṃha, ‘lion’].

• Īḻam/Eeelam

Īḻam/Īḻa-nāṭu is a Tamil name that has been used for Sri Lanka since the Sangam era from the 2nd century BCE. It may simply be a corruption of Sinhala: Sihila>Sîla>Ila>Īlam (Eelam) [DED 550].

It is a name that has been associated in modern times with the separatist Tamil Tigers of Eelam/Eezham and Tam:ilaṅkai (see above) is the Tamil name more commonly used for Sri Lanka.

PROVINCES (Capital):

CP– Central Province (Kandy); EP– Eastern Province (Trincomalee); NP– Northern Province (Jaffna); NCP– North Central Province (Anuradhapura); NWP– North Western Province (Kurunegala); SBP– Sabaragamuwa Province (Ratnapura); SP– Southern Province (Galle); UP– Uva Province (Badulla); WP– Western Province (Colombo).

• Listed below are over one hundred Sri Lankan place names representing the most important cities, towns, villages, national parks and rivers across the whole island.

• The etymology of each of these Sri Lankan place names is given along with a brief description of the city, town, park or river, what it’s famous for, and an outline of its history.