GOAN SURNAMES By Valmiki Faleiro

[augusto pinto]

Message: 4
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:45:37 +0530
From: "Valmiki Faleiro" <valm...@gmail.com>

Subject: [Goanet] Goan surnames: HERALD(Goa), Dec 28, 2008
To: "Goanet" <goa...@lists.goanet.org>

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GOAN SURNAMES
By Valmiki Faleiro


Let?s take the topic in two parts: Catholic and Hindu surnames.
 Catholic surnames
are rooted in the Iberian Peninsula. Because they came from European
 priests, who
baptized Goa?s first converts.

Iberian surnames are, among other things, after animals, birds, fruits

 and trees. Like
Cordeiro (lamb), Coelho (rabbit), Leitao (suckling pig),
 Lobato/Lobo/Lopes (wolf),
Raposo (fox), Aguiar (eagle), Melo (blackbird), Peregrino (vulture),
 Pinto (chick),
Castanha (chestnut), Figueira (fig), Moreira (mulberry), Nogueira

 (walnut), Oliveira
(olive), Albuquerque (white oak), Carvalho (oak), Lemos (elm),
 Pinheiro/Pinho (pine),
Silvano (wood), Silva/Silveira (one from the woods.)

Freedom fighter PP Shirodkar (Sr.) derided such foreign surnames.

 Prompt was a
riposte from Jose Fernandes of Siolim: "What?s wrong with Carvalho,
 Pinho, etc. in a
land that has Mensenkai (chilli), Iruli (onion), Zirulli (cockroach) as
 surnames? These
plants/insects are not Indian either. Is a Bhandari without ?bhanddar?

 (wealth) or a
Jagirdar (landlord) without land any more relevant than a Pinto in the
 casuarinas?"

Aren?t our homegrown surnames like Ambe (mango), Bhende (ladyfinger),
 Kande
(onion), Kelekar (bananas), Kunde (bran), Maad (coconut), Sakhardande

 (sugarcane),
Ghode (horse), Kir (parrot), Kolo (fox), Wagh (tiger) just as
 endearing? These are in
Konknni. Catholic ones are in Portuguese. Naturally, because they
 arrived only after
the Portuguese did.


Catholic surnames, from Fernandes to Souza, are ? touchstone ?
 egalitarian. Across
social divides. A Fernandes or Souza could be a converted Hindu Brahmin
 or one from
the lowest in the social pecking order. Regardless of undercurrents

 below the veneer.
Hindu ones, on the other hand, are based on caste/occupation. Naturally
 again,
because the caste system is a Hindu phenomenon.

Another feature in many Catholic family names is double (even triple)

 surnames ...
Barreto Xavier, Correia Afonso, Peres da Costa, Peres da Silva, Santana
 Silva. There
are several explanations. The ?Santana,? for instance, is after the
 presiding deity of the
Tiswadi village where the family originated. Some families in Margao

 use ?Piedade? as
a twin surname. In honour of Our Lady of Piety, whose chapel stands
 atop the Monte.
The commonest cause of double surnames, though, was when a live-in
 son-in-law
(?ghor-zanvuim?) was brought into a household with no male heir.


Take the Correia Afonso case. In one generation, there were only two
 ?Correia? girls.
The elder, Adelia, married a Mesquita from Cortalim (whence I
 maternally descend.)
The other, Propercia, married an ?Afonso? from Divar ? a resident

 son-in-law of the
Correias of Benaulim. ?Correia? became ?Correia Afonso.?

Chandor?s Braganca family, with that huge mansion at the church square,
 had three
daughters. One married Dr. Ligorio Cunha from Cuelim-Cansaulim. The

 surname
mutated to ?Braganza da Cunha,? to which was born Tristao Braganza da
 Cunha.
Suitors were found for the other two daughters. As the house was easily
 divisible into
two units, both suitors would be resident sons-in-law.


One, a Menezes, must have been a docile man. He agreed to a combined
 surname
with precedence to the wife?s surname... ?Menezes de Braganza.? To this
 family was
born the great Luis Menezes de Braganza. The second suitor, from

 Utorda, was no
pushover. He agreed to an adjunct of surnames, but with his own taking
 precedence?
?Braganza Pereira.? To this was born the equally famous A.B. Braganza
 Pereira ?
whose early 20th century work has been recently translated and

 re-published.

If 16th/17th century European missionaries gave their own surnames to
 converts,
converted Goan landlords, in turn, thrust their surnames on caretakers
 of their crops
and orchards. That is how Iberian surnames completed the circle of Goan

 Catholic
family names across social divides ? with a delightful m?lange of
 animals, birds,
fruits, insects, trees!

A bit more on my own surname. My learned Lisbon friend, Antonio Palinha
 Machado
thinks ?Faleiro? smacks of an occupation (related to grain

 grinding/windmills?) The first
Faleiros in Portuguese history were brothers Rui and Francisco, born in
 Covilha, in
Portugal's hinterland, circa the XV century. They served kings Joao-II
 and Manuel-I.

They were leading cosmographers and mathematicians.

Rui Faleiro cracked major breakthroughs with the Arab sextant. Latitude
 could finally
be measured accurately and longitude could be estimated. Rui was the

 man behind
Fernao de Magalhaes? circumnavigation trip, but developed cold feet at
 eleventh hour,
was convicted of high treason (sailing know-how was top secret), and
 exiled to Spain.
He died in Seville. Some of his family migrated overseas.


Locally, three clans from Benaulim?s original 12 ?Vangors? were
 Faleiros (?Zeitol? in the
local ?gampny bhaxa.?) Could these, with some Clementes (who definitely
 comprise the
ninth extant ?Vangor? of Benaulim), Coutinhos and Moraes (from the

 eleventh ?Vangor?
of Margao Comunidade) have shifted from Benaulim to Margao in ancient
 times? One
will never know. What one knows is that one Margao ?gavnkar,? Moraes,
 resettled in
Benaulim during the Portuguese era. Coincidence? (ENDS.)


The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:

http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330


==============================================================================
The above article appeared in the December 28, 2008 edition of the
 Herald, Goa

--
Augusto Pinto
40, Novo Portugal,
Moira, Bardez,
Goa, India
E pint...@gmail.com or ypin...@yahoo.co.in
P 0832-2470336
M 9881126350

[augusto pinto]

 Valmiki Faleiro's articles on Goan names in the Herald Mirror bristle under the surface with all sorts of politics, although I admire the way he has managed to keep the story good humoured. He was not born yesterday however, and I'm sure he knows what his project is - so I suspect  he will be upset by the jaundiced and prejudiced comments of mine which follow.

Faleiro writes,"Catholic surnames, from Fernandes to Souza, are ... egalitarian.  [They cut ] across social divides. A Fernandes or Souza could be a converted Hindu Brahmin  or one from the lowest in the social pecking order."

What he says is true. I do not know whether this was done consciously or not by the Portuguese. But in effect, it was a brilliant move by them because it was one of the means of changing the identity of the convert.  [Although of course other means were  used as well. They demanded a change in dress; in food habits (eating beef and pork and drinking feni in the house was made normal and chewing beetlenut and spitting out the remnants of the paan was frowned upon);  hairstyles (xenndis were taxed!!) and perhaps most importantly, in language - (everyone was supposed to speak Portuguese.) The last measure failed, but at a tremendous cost to Konkani.

I suspect that in those times the identity of the Goan was not to the 'Hindu' religion as such, but more to the family and to the family deity and caste, and the name of the person was a marker of this. By changing a Saraswat name like Kamat to a de Souza or a Fernandes, which could very well belong to a Sudhir or a Mahar, they hit at one of the cores of the pre-converted Goans' identity. But this does not mean that the Portuguese succeeded in this enterprise. Lucio Rodrigues in his brilliant essay 'To Kon'nallo' documented how Goans managed to circumvent this little obstacle. Read:

www.mail-archive.com/goanet-news@goanet.org/msg00367.html - 19k -


The local Goan aristocracy however was not satisfied with this arrangement and came up with a little subterfuge to make clear their ascendency over the rest. To understand how, read Faleiro from where he writes, "Another feature in many Catholic family names is double
(even triple) surnames ..."

I know what I say is annoying especially to the Bamons and Chaddes of today, but I think Catholics should learn to rationally confront the ghosts of their forbears, for unless they do, they will have to be resigned to bear the torments of the Hindutva baiter.

Looking forward to a more happy year,
Cheers
Augusto

[rajes...@yahoo.co.in]

Hi.Agusto. First let me wish you & all MOIRA NETTER A HAPPY NEW YEAR
2009
ok. Agusto i like the surname which you introduced us .They r
really great & funny to know it . thank you.
forgive me if i said any thing
wrong ?

On Dec 31 2008, 8:15 pm, "augusto pinto" <pinto...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 05:45:37 +0530

> From: "Valmiki Faleiro" <valmi...@gmail.com
> <http://in.f940.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=valmi...@gmail.com&YY=96629&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a­&head=b>>

> Subject: [Goanet] Goan surnames: HERALD(Goa), Dec 28, 2008
> To: "Goanet" <goa...@lists.goanet.org

> <http://in.f940.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=goa...@lists.goanet.org&YY=96629&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&order=down&sort=date&pos=0­&view=a&head=b>>

> ===========================================================================­===

> The above article appeared in the December 28, 2008 edition of the
>  Herald, Goa
>
> --
> Augusto Pinto
> 40, Novo Portugal,
> Moira, Bardez,
> Goa, India

> E pinto...@gmail.com or ypinto...@yahoo.co.in
> P 0832-2470336
> M 9881126350

[augusto pinto]

Dear Rajesh

Wish you a happy new year too. And I hope you write more often.

However please don't mind me asking, what did you mean when you wrote "i like the surname which you introduced us"

Don't answer if you feel it is a bother, but do send in contributions to MN.

Cheers
Augusto