Names of Sri Lanka

At the outset of the 6th century BC, Sri Lanka was known as Silam,[1][2] from the Pali Sihalam[2] (or Simhalam,[3] Sihalan,[4] Sihala[5]).

[3] Other ancient names used to refer to Sri Lanka included Serendip in Persian, Turkic (Serendib/Särändib) and Eelam in Tamil.

At the outset of the 6th century BC, Sri Lanka was known as Silam,[1][2] from the Pali Sihalam[2](or Simhalam,[3] Sihalan,[4] Sihala[9]).

[17] Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE) named it Σιελεδίβα : Sielediba or SieleDiva[4][2] (Diva, Dwipa meaning Island).

[20] The Greek name was adopted in medieval Irish (Lebor Gabála Érenn) as Deprofane (Recension 2) and Tibra Faine (Recension 3), off the coast of India, supposedly one of the countries where the Milesians / Gaels, ancestors of today's Irish, had sojourned in their previous migrations.

[21][22] The name remained in use in early modern Europe, alongside the Persianate Serendip, with Traprobana mentioned in the first strophe of the Portuguese national epic poem Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões.

John Milton borrowed this for his epic poem Paradise Lost and Miguel de Cervantes mentions a fantastic Trapobana in Don Quixote.

[29] During the 13th and 14th centuries, the forms Sailan,[30] Sílán,[31] Sillan,[32] and Seyllan,[33] were used With the Portuguese colonization in the 16th century, the original local names Silam, Sihala and Sailan were adopted as Ceilão in Portuguese (from 1505), and later as Zeilan or Zeylan in Dutch, and Ceylon in English.

The names Serendip, Seren-dip, Sarandib or Sarandīp are Persian and Arab[4] or Hindustani[36] names for Sri Lanka suggested to have been derived from the words Sinhala-dvipa (Sinhala Isle, dvipa or dipa means Island), or Suvarna-dvipa meaning "golden-isle".

The Tirupparankunram inscription found near Madurai in Tamil Nadu and dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, refers to a person as a householder from Eelam (Eela-kudumpikan).

The stem Eela is found in Prakrit inscriptions dated to 2nd century BC in Sri Lanka in personal names such as Eela-Vrata/Ela-Bharat and Eela-Naga.

][49] From the 19th century onwards, sources appeared in South India regarding a legendary origin for caste of toddy drawers known as Eelavar in the state of Kerala.

There have also been proposals of deriving Eelam from Simhala (comes from Elam, Ilam, Tamil, Helmand River, Himalayas).