Sinhala surnames

By Usvatte-aratchi

Dr. Rohan Wickremasinghe’s query on 01 July is interesting and someone who has systematically studied the subject may have satisfactory answers to it. My first reaction is that Sinhala have had no surnames until quite recently. The Sinhala until recently have traced their ancestry using a signification where they came from. My name appeared in the school register as Usvatte Aratchi ge Geedreck …. I was Geedreck, who came from the home of Usvatte Aratchi house. Usvatte is not an uncommon place name in our country. So were the names of my fellow students: Yaddehige Premaratne, Tuppahige Piyasoma, Alutgama Guruge Dayawanse and Amugoda Ruhunage Kusumavathie. This is still very common. Bhikkhu carry names identifying where they came from: Polvatte Buddhadatta, Baddegama Samita, Maduluvavae Sobhita, etc., although the Buddha’s disciples were not so identified: chunda, angulimala, devadatta, sari putta, etc. When we started ‘surnames’ itself may be an interesting search.

Names like Salgado, Fernando, Silva that serve as surnames among us appear among the names of sailors from Portugal who forayed into the ‘dark green sea’ (the Atlantic Ocean) in the 15th century, hoping to go to India after rounding the Cape. These names appear in Brazil now, not necessarily as surnames: Luis Ina`cio Lula da Silva and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. You can see the formation of surnames among us. Sajith Premadasa’s grandfather’s name was not Premadasa but his father’s name was. Maitripala’s father’s name was not Sirisena but his son’s name is. I recall someone counting the frequency of surnames in our telephone book in 2000(?) and Perera won the prize.

There are three lists of kings and queens in our country from Anuradhapura to Mahanuvara: those prepared by Polvatte Buddhadatta, by K. M de Silva and by Haris de Silva, all eminent scholars. These lists differ one from another. Buddhadatta’s list is from the Pali Mahavansa, that he edited in 1939. K. M de Silva’s list appears is in A History of Ceylon, published in 2005. Haris’s is in a slim volume that he published earlier this year and I was privileged to review here. (I sent my copy to a friend in Batticaloa and cannot read from it today.) None of the kings seem to have had surnames. There are many whose name ends with naga: Cora naga (63-51 CE) Khallata naga, Ila naga and Abhayanaga, which name disappears in Polonnaruwa. They came from a tribe that went to form this community. Two names recur in these lists: tissa and abhaya (Tisa (Tisha) and Aba in Sinhala). The name of the king after Vijaya was Upatissa. Most of you have heard of devanam piya (pleasant to gods Tissa (reminding me of ‘Luis the well beloved’ [Luis XV of France). Tissa recurs among king’s of Anuradhapura and disappears in Polonnaruwa. The other name that recurs is abhaya (aba in Sinhala). The fifth king in K.M.de Silva’s list is Pandukabhaya; de Silva restraints himself from giving the regnal years to him. Duttha Gamani Abhaya is in B’s list but KM mentions him as Duttha Gamani. It is well to remember that duttha was an appellation given to Gamani Abhaya for being disobedient to his father when the former was very young. (Shakespeare’s Richard III of England might have earned that name having worked hard for it.) It appears again in another famous king’s name: Vattagamaniabhaya (Valagamba). There also was a king Gotabhaya (Golu aba in Parakumba sirita) {249 CE}. The first bahu king in KM’s list is Vijayabahu (Vijaya-ba) (1055 -1100 CE). The interesting transformation in the name lies in the change from aba or abbhaya which meant freedom, liberty to a term which commonly signifies arm for valour. Thereafter bahu takes the place of abhaya and tissa until Mayadunne (1521-1581) comes in, in Sitavaka. His son was Rajasinghe and there were five other Rajasinghe kings, including the last who was captured by the British, ending the long line of rulers that began in Anuradhapura and that lasted for more than 2200 years. The name Wickremasinghe does not occur in those illustrious lists. I faintly remember reading in Vijyaba kollaya, a novel by W. A.de Silva, in which a ‘general’ in the army named Vickremasingha, in death bed, complained of betrayal by his king, perhaps, Mayadunne or Rajasinghe.

The best place to start with may be the Roman Catholic Churches’ baptismal records. Perhaps they contain information on the parents’ name and the name given to the child. They will also contain the names of parents and children in succeeding generations. We might then learn when and how de Zoysa, Salgado, Fernando and Peiris came to be surnames among the Sinhala. These churches may be in Wattala, Katuwapitiya or thereabout. If that does not help, the Dutch Reformed Churches will help. In Europe the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries have the best historical demographic data and they have been constructed using church records of births deaths and marriage. The credit for much of that go to pastors who kept those records. It is most likely that the Dutch Reformed Church here followed the same procedures. There one may find the advent of V(W)ickremasinghe.