Etymology
The name "Colombo", first introduced by the Portuguese in 1505, is believed to be derived from the classical Sinhalese name කොලොන් තොට Kolon thota, meaning "port on the river Kelani". It has been suggested that the name may be derived from the Sinhalese name කොල-අඹ-තොට Kola-amba-thota which means "Harbour with leafy mango trees".
It is possible that the Portuguese named the city after Christopher Columbus, the Italian sailor who lived in Portugal for many years before discovering the Americas on behalf of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. His Portuguese name is Cristóvão Colombo. Colombus set sail westward to look for India around the same time Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama set sail eastward, landing at the Port of Calicut in India on 20 May 1498. Colombus landed in the Americas six years before that on 12 October 1492 and was already a famed sailor and explorer, celebrated both in Portugal and Spain by the time Dom Lourenço de Almeida accidentally landed in the port of Galle in 1505.
The author of the oldest Sinhalese grammar, Sidatsangarava, written in the 13th century wrote about a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhalese. It lists naramba (to see) and kolamba (ford or habor) as belonging to an indigenous source. Kolamba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo.
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