Sundanese language
Whilst the single word of the name does not convey any apparent meaning in its local languages, many believed that the name "Tasikmalaya" means either "a large area of sand" or "a large area of mountains". This is presumed to begin at Sukapura, a place at earlier time called Tawang or Tawang-Galunggung. Tawang means paddy fields, or literary "a wide range of an open space". When Mount Galunggung erupted and left its volcanic deposits everywhere nearby, the open space of Sukapura became mountainous or hilly, by mounds of sand scattered over its land. These new contours of the land are believed to be the beginning of the naming "Tasikmalaya". It is either derived from a conflation of Sundanese language "tasik" and "(ma)layah", meaning, literary "an ocean of hills", or from Sundanese language "tasik", "jeung", and "laya", meaning "large tracts of sand" (, ). Other believes that the name is also defined as "an ocean of hills" but with different theory, where "Tasikmalaya" is believed to be originated from Sundanese language "tasik" (lake, sea), and "malaya" (a chain of mountains or highlands). However, there is not such certain information of when the name was first originated.