GOAN NAMES, SURNAMES AND … By Valmiki Faleiro Goan names are often interesting. Even surnames. And, best of all, our nicknames! Let us delve a bit into this delightful subject over the next few Sundays. Permit me to talk with no particular reverence. But, before I’m accused of poking fun at others, let me start today with my own peculiarities. I’ll begin with my family nickname, ‘Sulço.‘ Meaning, one from the south. Most Goan nicknames, we must remember, were born out of derision. But, this rather innocuous one carried a bit of history. Down ages, whenever Goans had to flee – from wars, pestilence or persecution – Tiswadkars and Bardezkars generally fled eastwards or north. Folks from today’s Salcete and Mormugao (‘Sasaxtikars’) invariably fled south. Some never returned: the coastal Karnataka/Kerala Konknnis. An ancestor was treasurer of the local Comunidade, repository of the village wealth. Margao was a wealthy village. Her treasury was prime target in an enemy attack. In the face of a Maratha attack, my ancestor fled. Naturally, southwards … possibly to Mangalore. He either was a funk or fell in love with something in that balmy coastal town. Because, despite reminders that things were safe, our hero was not returning. Angry Margaoites christened him ‘Sulço‘ when he eventually did. Understandably. How ‘Sulço‘ got morphed to ‘Sulço Combo’ (southern rooster), in the 20th century, is something I’m trying to find out. No one seems to know. About an answer came from an elderly man, now in Australia, who spent his boyhood years in my neighbourhood. Alluding to my long-gone paternal uncle, he said, “I was not perceptive enough to observe whether he was a Don Juan, or whether it was a sobriquet assigned to him out of sour grapes by women who secretly craved for his virile looks, as I remember them.”
From smiles that ‘Sulço Combo’ still evoke, to my family name: Faleiro.
‘de Souza’ is arguably the most common Goan surname. There is a whole township called Souza in Mozambique, inhabited only by de Souzas. ‘Faleiro’ ranks among the rarest of Goan Catholic surnames, which originated from missionaries who gave their own surnames to the new converts. The trend continued with local ‘bhatkars’ thrusting their surnames upon their ‘mundkars.’ That’s how the few Goan Faleiros turned into slightly noticeable numbers. Goa’s first native Faleiros emerged in the Salcete village of Raia. They still form the bulk of Goan Faleiros, though now dispersed all over the world. Raia’s neighbouring village of Loutolim had a sparse sprinkling. Margao had only two. One was the Borda Faleiros. The other was my own ancestry – traditionally uni-linear by male descent, hence even fewer in number. Despite microscopic numbers, ‘Faleiro’ is a well-known surname. Perhaps because, as a wag once said, they ‘talk’ (after “fala” in Portuguese) more, and get elected to public office! One spent half a lifetime as minister in India’s union government, another at the State level (this pen pusher himself was, though briefly, a Municipal President) and a dear schoolmate, Quintiliano, Sarpanch of Loutulim. TJ Faleiro, whose relatives owned Daman’s downtown ‘Hotel Paradise’, was with the Goa Civil Service. Heitor, another schoolmate, is currently director of Goa’s veterinary services.
From surname to name, I’m often asked how I bear a ‘Hindu’ name. “Ask my parents,”
I say to escape a protracted explanation. I am, of course, proud of my Indian name. The story in brief: mother’s first cousin, married to Dr. Constancio Roque Monteiro of Nagoa-Verna, had a child baptized Valmiki. The boy died in early childhood. I was born some time later. Dr. Constancio Roque and my dad, both doctors, were also abreast with Indian traditions. Another strange rarity in Goa… Valmiki, here, is not so much a ‘Hindu’ name as it is a Catholic one. An internet search of the telephone directory yielded six ‘Valmikis’ in Goa – five Catholics … a Menezes (son of Goa’s last Judicial Commissioner, Justice Tito Menezes) of Goa Velha, a Braganza from Chimbel, a Costa from Margao, the well- known diocesan priest, Fr. Valmiki Dias Gonsalves, and yours sincerely. Two queer questions arise from the handful in Goa named after one of India’s greatest Maha Rishis. Why are the last two from just six Valmikis listed in the telephone directory – one a Catholic priest, the other far from any religious illusions – so often mistaken with one another? The second, and more pertinent, of the two questions that I shall try to answer in the fewest possible words next Sunday: of six Valmikis in Goa, only one was Hindu, a Naik from Panjim. Why do Hindus in Goa fight shy of naming their sons after the great Indian sage? By its most plausible answer, hangs a tale… (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 7, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
