The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.
The official English name was changed by the country's government from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar in 1989, and still later to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, which since then has been the subject of controversies and mixed incidences of adoption.
The official name of the nation is the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. In 1972, the national constitution discarded the name Ceylon and adopted the name of Sri Lanka. In Sinhala, the language of the majority, Sri means blessed and Lanka is the name of the island. The island's history of immigration, trade, and colonial invasion has led to the formation of a variety of ethnic groups, each with its own language and religious traditions.