How Telugu got its name?

The main languages spoken in Andhra Pradesh are Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Banjara, and English followed by Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Oriya. Telugu is the principal and official language of the State. It was also referred to as `Tenugu' in the past. `Andhra' is the name given to it since the medieval times. Some argued that `Telugu' was a corruption of `Trilinga' (Sanskrit meaning three `lingas'). A general description of the land of the Telugus was made in the medieval times as `the land marked by three lingas of the three famous shrines of Draksharamam (East Godavari district), Kaleswaram (Karimnagar district) and Srisailam (Kurnool district). There are many theories in this regard. Let us examine some of them here.
Khandavalli Lakshmi Ranjanam
The word telugu probably comes from the word talaing . Since tala refers to head, talaings refers to leaders. Later this must have given rise to the words telungu and trilinga .
Godavarti Ramadasu
Some believe that the word telugu comes from the Sanskrit forms trilinga or trikalinga: Actually, the word kalinga itself is a Dravidian word. In Kui language, rice is called Kulinga. Since Kuis were mainly rice eaters, Aryans might have called them kulingas or kalingas.
Marepalli Ramachandra Shastri
In Gondi languahge, unga is form for plural. telu means white. Hence, telunga probably refers to people who are white in complexion.
Ganti Jogi Somayaji
The word ten refers to south in Proto-Dravidian. Hence tenungu refers to Southerners.
The evolution of Telugu can be traced through centuries in terms of its form as well as its function. Although culturally Telugu is close to its southern neighbours -- Tamil and Kannada -- genetically, it is closer to its northern neighbours -- Gondi, Konda, Kui, Kuvi, Pengo and Manda. There is evidence to show that these languages were freely borrowed from Telugu even from the prehistoric period whereas borrowing between Telugu and Tamil and Kannada has been mostly during the historic period, i.e., post-5th century B.C.