[Facts] Re: Naming in Sri Lanka
in reply to a message by Anneza
Not a complete answer, but Tamil tradition, either in India, nor in Sri Lanka, uses last names. The various pieces are usually a dynastic name, Father's name, Village name, , title/subcaste marker (which sometimes used to mark occupation as well), etc. in addition to the personal name which can be multiple words and which usually comes last. I don't know enough Tamil to parse this example for you.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_conventions_of_ancient_Tamil_country, and especially https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_family_names#Tamil_names (which takes a rather extreme stance of not expanding initials, this aspect of the page is ahistorical. Traditionally, especially written in Tamil, there were no initials.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_conventions_of_ancient_Tamil_country, and especially https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_family_names#Tamil_names (which takes a rather extreme stance of not expanding initials, this aspect of the page is ahistorical. Traditionally, especially written in Tamil, there were no initials.
Replies
Thank you for that, and for the very useful references. It's interesting to know that the tradition extends to (or from?) south India as well, though it's clearly impossible to generalise about a region so diverse.