Etymology
The name Tiruchirappalli is popularly believed to derive from the Sanskrit "Trishirapuram"—'Trishira' meaning "three-headed" and 'palli' or 'puram' meaning "City". According to Hindu mythology, the town got its name from the three-headed demon Trishira who meditated on the Hindu god Shiva near the present-day Tiruchirappalli and obtained favours at this place. However, this derivation is not universally accepted.
Ancient religious references to Chirapalli Sivan temple comes from the devotional poetry called Thevarams written by Appar and Sambanthar where they refer to Chirapalli by name. Sierra or ciarra means mountain range in Spanish (eg Sierra Leonne, Sierra Nevada etc.). Thiru is a Tamil prefix for holy. Palli means a gate where toll is collected.
Other derivations of Tiruchirappalli have been provided by the Telugu scholar C. P. Brown who suggested that Tiruchirappalli might be a derivative of the word 'Chiruta-palli' meaning "little town". In a rock inscription of the sixteenth century, Tiruchirappalli is mentioned as Tiru-ssila-palli meaning "holy-rock-town" in Tamil and Orientalists Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell believed that the name Tiruchirappalli might have been derived from it. A few other scholars feel that the name Tiruchirappalli might have been derived from Tiru-chinna-palli meaning "holy little town". The Madras Glossary gives the root as Tiruććināppalli or the "holy (tiru) village (palli) of the shina (Cissampelos pareira) plant".
During British rule, Tiruchirappalli was commonly referred to using the erroneous spelling "Trichinopoly". The shortened forms "Trichy" or "Tiruchi" are more frequently used in common parlance.
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