May I take the liberty of riffing off on Roland Francis's broad categorisation of Goan names over the past three generations in his illuminating post? I have a short story, in a forthcoming collection, which throws another light on the naming practice prevalent among Catholics in Goa today:
[When Cruzina, Isabella’s sister, came home for Christmas from her teaching job in Ghaziabad, she was surprised to hear of a barber named Sharma. She said a barber named Sharma had to be a rarity, because Sharma was a Brahmin surname. The blood rushed to Mathew’s head. “And, why, can your precious sister tell us, people called Brahmins can’t be barbers?” A quick internet search later revealed that the Sharma surname was also common among the so-called lower castes. In any case, Sharma had never claimed to be what he was not. From the very fact that he was a barber he knew people would know what his status in society was. But if he had shared his first name at their first meeting, the matter of his caste wouldn't have arisen at all, perhaps. A simple Suraj, or Albert, or whatever, was all people were expecting when they asked you your name, nothing more. But Mathew knew it was a serious matter. He recalled a report on TV about a dalit boy in UP who had been murdered by a so-called Brahmin for sporting the same name, Neeraj, as his own son. He had also read, astounded, about the practice of naming so-called lower-caste children after things like their appearance at birth, or their weight, or the day they were born, or their general disposition around naming time – all this only so that their names were not the same as those of the people who had assigned themselves a higher status in society! Mathew smiled at the contrast, and the ultra-modern abandon, with which people in Goa, particularly Catholics, named their newborns, picking liberally, and indiscriminately, from an overladen buffet of names from all over the world. English and Portuguese names, hybrid names (bits of two names combined into one), Hindu names (even so-called Brahmin names among them, perhaps!), Muslim names, footballers’ names, film star names, dictators’ names, political leaders’ names, the lot! He also recalled the rather extreme case, in Mumbai, where employees in an office he had worked in once were known only by their initials! Years after leaving that firm, Mathew had dropped in for a visit and had discovered that none of his former colleagues recognised him when he introduced himself, but no sooner he mentioned his initials – MF – than eyes lit up and smiles flashed at him in happy remembrance! Why, then, did the likes of Sharma restrict themselves to the names of the benighted neanderthals who lorded it over them in their godforsaken villages? There was a whole universe of names out there, but these dimwits had to borrow from the people who treated them with contempt and even killed them if they prayed in their temples or drank from their wells!]