Sri Lanka and all those initials

What is with the Sri Lankans and all those first names they have. I remember Vaas used to have four initials before his surname, the the two Jayawardenes each have four initials - so does Kulasekera. Now Welegedera must have set a record with six initials before his name - UWMBCA. Hope he doesn't have to write out his full name that often!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranjith_Amunugama

Amunugama Rajapakse Rajakaruna Abeykoon Panditha Wasalamudiyanse Ralahamilage Rajitha Krishantha Bandara Amunugama

A Sri Lankan friend once told me that most Sri Lankans get about 6 names - some of them indicate family, tribe, region etc. They can then choose themselves which ones they use as preferred forename/surname.

His full name on his passport took up a lot of page space.