Shenoy is a surname from coastal Karnataka and Goa in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is found among Hindus of the

Goud Saraswat Brahmin Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) (also Goud or Gawd) are a Hindu Brahmin community of the north. The Konkani speaking Gaud Saraswat of Goa and southern India claim to be descendents of these Gaud Saraswat Brahmins of the north that migrated to ...

community following Smartha Sampradaya of Kavale Matha or Madhva Sampradaya of either Gokarna Matha or Kashi Matha. Some Brahmin Christian families of South Canara have reverted to their pre-conversion surnames like Shenoy.

Etymology

There are two theories about the origin of Shenoy or Shenvi. # The Sanskrit word ''Shrenipati'', meaning the leader of the guild, which got converted as ''Shennivayi'' in '' Apabhraṃśa'', and later as ''Shenai'' or ''Shenvi'' in old Konkani. # It is from the Sanskrit word for 96, ṣaṇṇavati (षण्णवति). The significance of the word 96 among Konkanis is that 96 villages formed the core region of Goa. It is said that 96 clans / families of Saraswat Brahmins arrived in Gomantak and settled in one village each. 66 villages were in Sashti region (66 in Sanskrit is ṣaṭ ṣaṣṭi - षट् षष्टि. Sashti became Salcette during the Portuguese rule) and 30 villages were in Tiswadi region.

Background and origins

The Shenoys were generally involved in administration of the city. The word 'Shenoy' itself means a writer. GSBs were administrators of the temples. The word 'Shenoy' is also interchangeable with its counterpart
Shanbhag
The Saraswats migrated from Goa during the Muslim and Christian conquests during 1600, and carried their surname with them. Thus the word 'शणै' is transliterated in

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greece, Greek city of Cumae, in southe ...

as ''Shenoy'' in

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Kar ...

and as ''Xennai, Shenoi, Shenai, Shenvi'' or even '' Sinai'' in Goa. ''Xennoi'' is less commonly used in the erstwhile Portuguese Goa and Damaon, but nowadays it has given way to ''Xennai'' today. It was common in Goa for Shenoys and other Saraswats to add the name of their ancestral

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

after Shenoy to denote their origin.

Notable people

The following is a list of notable people with the surname 'Shenoy', 'Shanbhag'. * Aishwarya Nag: Originally Aishwarya Nagendra Shenoy, South Indian actress * Arun Shenoy: composer and music producer who has received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nomination *

Basti Vaman Shenoy Basti Vaman Madhav Shenoy (6 November 1934 – 2 January 2022) was an Indian Konkani activist popularly known as ''Vishwa Konkani Sardar'' (World Konkani Leader) and was the founder of World Konkani Centre in Shakthinagar, Mangalore. Early ...

: Konkani activist and founder of World Konkani Centre in Mangalore *

Prathima Devi Prathima Devi (9 April 1933 – 6 April 2021) was an Indian actress known for her work in Kannada films. Devi made her debut through the 1947 film ''Krishnaleela''. She starred in the lead role in '' Jaganmohini'' (1951), the first Kannada film ...

: Kannada actress, wife of

D. Shankar Singh D. Shankar Singh was an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, exhibitor and a freedom fighter during the British rule in India. Singh, along with B. Vittalacharya co-found the "Mahatma Pictures", a production venture in 1946, that ha ...

, mother of Rajendra Singh Babu * Preeti Shenoy: artist and writer * Samskruthy Shenoy: actress who has appeared in South Indian films * Shenoi Goembab (1877–1946): Konkani Pandit *

Krishna V. Shenoy Krishna V. Shenoy (1968-2023) was an American neuroscientist and neuroengineer at Stanford University. Shenoy focused on motor and computational neuroscience, neuroengineering, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and neurotechnology. Throughout his ...

Hong Seh and Vivian W.M. Lim Professor in the School of Engineering, Stanford University. *

Suresh V. Shenoy Suresh V. Shenoy is an Indian-American engineer, senior business executive and philanthropist. Suresh V. Shenoy is Executive Vice President at Information Management Consultants, Inc., a Virginia-based consulting and technology services company t ...

: executive and philanthropist *

Vasudev V Shenoy Vasudev Vaman Shenoy (15 February 1940 – 9 March 2015), better known as V.V.Shenoy, was a notable Educationist, Educational Counsellor, Journalist and a Social Activist. He was also a plants enthusiast and very popular for the Panchavati Terrac ...

(1940 – 2015): Educationist, Educational Counsellor, Journalist and a Social Activist *

Vijay Balakrishna Shenoy Vijay Balakrishna Shenoy is a Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for science and technology, the highest science award in India, for the year 2013 in the p ...

: Professor of physics and recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest science award in India *

Prashant Shenoy Prashant Shenoy (born 1972) is an Indian-American Computer Scientist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is known for his cont ...

: Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst * T. V. R. Shenoy: Journalist, editor, and columnist

References

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Etymology

Background and origins

Notable people

References

Further reading