A name that travelled with the grafts
Pairi already had several spellings—and more than one selection—when it entered early international mango records.
Pairi — Western India; historical introductions from Mumbai and Pune
Local tradition
Writing in 1920, horticulturist Wilson Popenoe recorded Pairi arriving in the United States from Bombay in 1902, followed by a slightly different selection from Poona in 1911. The name travelled, but it did not always describe identical fruit.
Popenoe suggested that Pairi might derive from the Portuguese surname Pereira. He treated that as a possibility, and so do we. His recorded spellings—Paheri, Pirie and Pyrie—show how an orchard name changes as it moves between voices and places.
The names it answers to
- Pairi
- The name used in India’s horticultural records.
- Paheri / Pirie / Pyrie
- Historical spellings recorded by Popenoe; his proposed Pereira etymology remains tentative.