What Is In A Name

I was following Cricinfo Live-Commentary on 1st test-match between Sri Lanka and West Indies. As rain stopped play and the commentators got tired of providing weather-updates, the followers themselves decided to have some fun  by discussing some interesting anecdotes not related to Cricket. Somehow a topic involving persons with long names came up for discussion. Here are few interesting ones.

Some of the Sri Lankan players, who have the longest name in Cricket History, are

• Amunugama Rajapakse Rajakaruna Abeykoon Panditha Wasalamudiyanse Ralahamilage Rajitha Krishantha Bandara Amunugama popularly known as Rajitha Amunugama. He boasted 11 initials - a fitting number for a member of a cricket XI, but nothing sort of a headache for scorers and journalists.
• Arya Kastriya Takurartiya Dawaditya Gadyawasam Lidamullage Asitha Suraj de Silva popularly known as Suraj de Silva. Total 10 words.
• Manampeli Mahapata Bandhi Ralalage Supun Tharanga Coory Wanigaratne popularly known as Supun Tharanga. Total 8 initials
• Uda Walawwe Mahim Bandaralage Chanaka Asanga Welegedara popularly known as Chanaka Welegedara. Total 7 words
• Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas popularly known as Chaminda Vaas. Total 6 initials

Imagine a cricket team, featuring all of them and few more that I may have missed. What a day for the scorekeepers and journalists, you can be sure that they will be cursing them forever !! 

I went ahead and googled for the person with the longest name and found that the award for the longest name for a person belongs to a German immigrant to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name he was given at birth, and which somehow fitted on his passport started with 26 words followed by 588 characters and finally ending with Senior.

First and Middle names had a total of 26 words, one apiece for every alphabet in English

Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvim John Kenneth Loyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor Willian Xerxes Yancy Zeus

His Last name had only 588 characters :-)

Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffvoralternwarengewissenhaf

tschaferswesenchafewarenwholgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschut

zenvonangereifenduchihrraubgiriigfeindewelchevorralternzwolf

tausendjahresvorandieerscheinenbanderersteerdeemmeshedrraums

chiffgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefah

rthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchenachdiesternwelshegeha

btbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurassevanver

standigmenshlichkeittkonntevortpflanzenundsicherfreunanleben

slamdlichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvonandere

rintlligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum

Finally the last word (Sigh ...)

Senior

Thankfully, the gentleman had "shortened" his long-name to Mr Wolfe Plus 585 Sr !!


Do you still want to know What is in a Name ??