The name Thiruvananthapuram, shared by the district and its headquarters city, comes from the word Thiru-anantha-puram, meaning Abode of Lord Anantha. The name derives from the deity of the Hindu temple at the center of Thiruvananthapuram city. Anantha is the serpent, Shesha, on whom Padmanabhan or Vishnu reclines. The district's official name in English was Trivandrum until 1991, when the government reinstated the city's original name, Thiruvananthapuram, in all languages.