what's colombo's christian name??

Answer 1

Except for one very brief flash of Columbo's police ID card (which is essentially only viewable with a DVD player that features both zoom and freeze frame) Columbo's first name was never explicitly revealed in the series. When pressed, he would insist that it was "Lieutenant".

Several sources cite the lieutenant's name as "Philip Columbo", variously claiming that the name was either in the original script for Prescription: Murder or that it was visible on his police badge. Peugeot even ran an advertising campaign that mentioned "Lt. Philip Columbo" as the most famous driver of the Peugeot 403 convertible. However, the name "Philip Columbo" was, in fact, invented by Fred L. Worth, author of The Trivia Encyclopedia, who planted the deliberately false information about Columbo's first name in his book (and its sequels) in an attempt to catch out anyone who might try to violate his copyright. Worth's ploy was, however, only partially successful.

In 1984 Worth filed a $300 million lawsuit against the distributors of the board game Trivial Pursuit, claiming that they had sourced their questions from his books, even to the point of reproducing mis-prints and typographical errors. The ace up his sleeve was "Philip Columbo" which had appeared in a game question about Lt. Columbo, despite the name 'Philip' being an invention of Worth's.
Solved! The signature of Lt. Frank Columbo
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Solved! The signature of Lt. Frank Columbo

Trivial Pursuit did not deny they sourced material from Worth's books (amongst others) and submitted that copying from a single source is plagiarism, but compiling information from several sources is called research. The judge agreed, ruling in favor of Trivial Pursuit and the case was thrown out of court.

The matter of Columbo's name was finally laid to rest by the release of the first series on DVD. In the episode Dead Weight where Columbo introduces himself to General Hollister, the audience is shown a close-up of his badge, complete with the signature of "Frank Columbo".

Answer 2

The name Colombo is derived from Sinhala name Kola-amba-thota which means "harbour with leafy mango trees". Traveller Ibn Batuta in the 14th century referred to it as Kalanpu.

Answer 3

Peter Falk