New Post
Search
Help[Facts] Naming in Sri Lanka
South Africa and Sri Lanka are playing a cricket Test match at the moment; one of the Sri Lankan team is a brilliant spin bowler, still playing at top level at the age of 40. Of more interest perhaps is that his first given name and his surname are the same; he goes by his middle name. The full string is: Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath.
Does anyone know whether this is at all usual in Sri Lanka? Many of their cricketers have three or four given names, but I've never seen anything like this before. Perhaps some at least Sri Lankan people traditionally put their surname first and then their given names; then duplicating the surname might be an attempt to make life easier for people who expect the surname to come last? Googling was not very successful: it seems that the suffix -ge (as in Mr Herath's second name) indicates place of origin, "like German Von", which is more interesting than helpful.
And, even if you don't have any information, I hope you enjoy the problem!
Does anyone know whether this is at all usual in Sri Lanka? Many of their cricketers have three or four given names, but I've never seen anything like this before. Perhaps some at least Sri Lankan people traditionally put their surname first and then their given names; then duplicating the surname might be an attempt to make life easier for people who expect the surname to come last? Googling was not very successful: it seems that the suffix -ge (as in Mr Herath's second name) indicates place of origin, "like German Von", which is more interesting than helpful.
And, even if you don't have any information, I hope you enjoy the problem!
1