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 mélange 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.
