Seri Begawan was named after the Sultan's late father Sir Omar Ali Saifuddien on 5 October 1970, its original name being Bandar Brunei. Begawan is a name given to Bruneian monarchs who have abdicated, originally coming from the Sanskrit word for "god": bhagavan. Seri also comes from the honorific Sanskrit word Sri. Bandar, comes from Persian via Indian languages and means "port" or "haven" (bandar means "town" in Malay).
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