[Turing_Machine]

Indeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though.

He went by "Sam Thiru".

When I first began I asked a friend if he knew anything about this "Professor Thiru". He said "Well, that's not really his name. His real name wouldn't fit in the schedule." :-)

Later, a different professor used him as an example of why it was a bad idea to hard-code the length of name fields.

Great guy, and one of the best instructors I've ever had.

[OldGuyInTheClub]

> Indeed. I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan. He might've been from Sri Lanka rather than India proper, though.

Almost certain he's a Sri Lankan Tamil. South Indians and Sri Lankans transliterate slightly differently.

[dctoedt]

> I had a professor in undergrad named Kanapathipillai Thirugnanasambanthan

My son had a high-school classmate whose name was something similarly long. Everyone called him "R-18."

[vrc]

Lots of people from Andhra/Telugu people have many names, and are known by initials or drop them if they come to the US. That sometimes includes optional caste names or titular names that come at the end, with the family name leading (as in China and Japan). My uncle, for example, had a four-word given name, formally introduced his given name in India or in temples as the latter two, and then dropped the first of the two, and swapped family-first for first-family when he came to the states.

For example, if you ever fly into Bangalore or Mumbai, you'll see GVK on their airports. That's for Gunapati Venkata Krishna Reddy, who goes by GVK. Gunapati is the family name, Venkata Krishna is his given name, and Reddy is the caste name.

Other examples are NT Rama Rao, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and my favorite, is a person I know of who went by KRKVNS Sharma.