A very long, and a very unusual name, even by Sri Lankan standards. Many people ask about the history of the name, and how it came about.
The Story:
The name started off, as one might imagine, as a shorter version, which was prefixed to a name, as was the old traditional Sinhalese style of naming. Thus, a name of that period might take the form "Sembacuttige Roshan". The "ge" in the name is the Sinhalese version of the German "Von" or the Irish "O'", meaning "belonging to" or "of". Thus, "Sembacuttige Roshan" meant Roshan of the family or clan Sembacutti.
In the 1700's lived a person named Sembacuttige Tinnan who, during the Dutch occupation of Sri Lanka (1640-1796) , was a well-to-do land-owner. The Dutch then gave Tinnan the title of "Nayida", a title of respect, thus making his full name "Sembacuttige Tinnan Nayida", and also bestowing the title also onto his descendents.
After the Dutch occupation ended, Tinnan, who no longer wanted to keep a Dutch title, translated "Nayida" to the appropriate Sinhalese word "Aratchy", and added it to the end of the family name, thus transforming the form "Sembacuttige Tinnan Nayida" to the now more recognizable "Sembacuttiaratchyge Tinnan".
One more change is needed to bring the name into its modern day incarnation, and this happened because of "Sembacuttiaratchyge Arnolis" (1909-1993) . He decided to again change the name, to make it more modern and easier to use in the Western world, and thus he changed his name from the original "Sembacuttiaratchyge Arnolis", to the name "Ananda Sembacuttiaratchy".
As you can see, the name Sembacuttiaratchy has passed through many incarnations to arrive at its present-day form. But for all we know, it might well be just another stage, till it is changed once again...
Terms of use