It's time to put this to rest once and for all. How did the Families get their names? History tells us that it wasn't until 1963 when Joseph Valachi flipped and named the heads of the 5 Families, and the names stuck ever since, the only exception being the Profaci Family becoming the Colombo Family. Before then, there is ABSOLUTELY no public record of any LCN members calling themselves by the names of their current bosses.

From my point of view...some of the NY fams used terms as "West Side" crew etc similar to Chicago which used terms as "West Side admin" or "Battaglias Outfit (crew)" or "Outfit" and "clique" in general, but it is possible that the crime families as a whole were labelled by the members and also the feds (who received the info from those same members) depending on who led the family at the time. Although regarding families outside NY, I personally never saw a wiretapped convo or an informer saying the "Ricca family" or "Aiuppa family" regarding Chicago but instead it was always "The Outfit" or "the clique".

They got those names from the street. If the government had assigned them those names as some of you seem to believe, they would not use them. Period. The "official" names are often used during induction ceremonies. I suggest people read more transcripts. Or just read more in general lol

I think that those are their given names, and because of that they call it their own and play off the reputations of those names. Typically speaking, the mob isn't like other groups or gangs that wear identifying patches, colors, tattoos or have a special handshake, although the way things are going that may soon change. In this day and age, nothing is all that shocking anymore.

I agree Liggio that as far as I can make out the names stem from who Valachi labelled as the bosses back then. I find it hard to believe that the families adopted those media/government led names but to this day the families actually do use them. What interests me is if anyone knows what they referred to themselves as prior to then? There was a bit of calling them “House of [insert boss name” but why did family names not move to new bosses after the valachi testimony?

I think that the families more or less "accepted" the names. When Rochester become independent nobody called Valente family and now Buffalo is called Todaro organization.
Comico was Massino that tried to rename the Bonannos with his name.

It was whoever the boss was at the time or who they perceived to be the boss. Example is an informant for the FBN in New Jersey, who gave information in the early to mid 1950s, who identified Badami as boss of New Jersey, Ida of Philadelphia, Anastasia, Costello and Lucchese of New York as a bosses, Magaddino of Buffalo. The informant then said that Garofalo, Magliocco of New York were bosses, but they were Underbosses at the time. The informant even identified some capos as bosses of their own families that belonged to the Bonanno, Gambino, and the Genovese families. That is just one example.

What you just said is largely correct, Giacalone.

Correct Brovelli, they do use the names given to them even if they didn't name themselves that. And it only makes sense. Why not just go with the names that the public at large and the press and basically everyone else knows you by? It just makes things simple. But this "you better not fuck with me I'm a Bonanno" thing is beyond silly and childish. It's so ridiculous that I even wonder if Joe Lanni even said it.

Before the Valachi hearings, most Americans were unaware of a "national syndicate" of OC. Even if they knew that "the Mafia," or "the Mob" were active in their cities, they probably were unaware that OC activities were organized around families, with a Don and a hierarchy. The Valachi charts for the first time showed the public what a Mafia family structure looked like, and who was the current boss. The news media simply picked up on that, and law enforcement carried that nomenclature forward when making arrests or investigations. The hearings also made the FBI, which had largely ignored OC, start going after LCN and talking up their new efforts with the media and politicians.

But, if you look at the Valachi charts from 60 years ago, the only one of the Five Families whose name has changed is Colombo, which was "the Joseph Magliocco Family" in the charts. That was because of Joe Colombo's ultra-high media profile, not because he decreed it. Gotti, asked by a reporter if he was the boss of the Gambino Family, famously replied: "I'm a member of the Gotti family. My wife Vicki is the boss."

In fairness I don't think the "Genovese Family" goes by that name that's just used in public. The other 4 seem to still go by those traditional names

The absolute truth of the matter is, the TRUTH! Is that long before Joe Valachi ever spilled his guts, and the FBI created those now-infamous hierarchy charts with the info he provided, with the "names" of the so-called Five Families....these borgatas were ALWAYS named for the "Representante" who headed them, and interchangeably, with the area or district they came from....And THATS a fact! Hands down!

The Castellammarese borgata or Salvatore Maranzano's Family. The Brooklyn crew or Joe Profaci's Family. The Downtown Crew (later Westside) or Charlie Luciano's Family, etc. etc.

These entities needed to be identified in order for guys to operate and communicate properly....how else were they gonna do it? By saying the bald guy from 18th Ave who's with the other fella from Bensonhurst? Or the fella who's with the fella from Downtown NY?

Like Valachi said, it was Tommy Gagliano's outfit, later Tommy Lucchese's crew. Albert Anastasia's borgata. So on and so forth...

No one’s disagreeing with what happened prior. The point of interest is that to this day the families generally call themselves the names that came from that era. Eg in pennisis making ceremony they called the family the lucchese family. It is interesting because as an outsider I would assume the media might call them that but inducted members would have their own thing or even no specific way of identifying. But they literally call themselves the luccheses as the gambinos do etc. it is interesting as to why it went that way

Yes it was already tradition in Sicily, Italy.

First of all. You are WAY OUT OF LINE HERE, understand what I'm tellin' you? So I strongly suggest that you jump back into your gorilla bag and calm the fuck down. Whether you agree with other forum members or not, thats not how you talk to people. Nobody cursed your mother, or disrespected you the way you are now attempting to speak to me.

Thats not how a gentleman talks....Truth be told, thats not even how an asshole talks. Where I come from, thats only how a punk talks! Get it? So wise the fuck up!
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That said, learn how to conduct yourself in a proper manner. Don't let the fact that you know you can hide in your basement behind your computer screen, make you then act like the "tough guy" we both know you aren't. Understand?

Only the public generally calls them by those names. Although truthfully, nowadays, many street guys do as well. But TRUTHFULLY, thats not the way it is.

Zummo in that recorded ceremony called them the bonanno family. You can critique each individual instance but from the evidence we have the bonannos call themselves the bonannos the luccheses call themselves that, the gambinos are the gambinos from what I understand. The west side I don’t think ever call themselves the Genovese and I understand the Colombo’s are sometimes and may call themselves the persicos. But 3 of 5 are seemingly still using names from 50+ years ago. I agree tradition is the current boss makes the family, likely to hide the actual boss is why they stopped doing that and just kept those old names.

Bingo Brovelli! That last statement that you made, about them shielding the true boss by NOT mentioning his name or referring to their borgata by his name is right on point.

So, between guys, even so-called good fellas nowadays, who are "green" and novices, as well as the more savvy fellas who prefer to shield their boss, their buddy, from exposure, often times today the just refer to the crews by their old "tradition" bosses names of the 1960s; Gambino, Bonanno, Colombo, and so forth.

Neither the first nor last time he is insulting other members, someone deleted his insulting posts from last night. I am not the admin , but he deserved to get banned long time ago. For both insulting other members, not being able to have civilized conversation and for trolling on threads.

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I agree with you Strax. I also see that Liggio deleted his original nasty comments aimed at me from yesterday. He later posted an apology to me. I also saw a comment he made this morning claiming he was "drunk" last night (so I guess, thats his excuse for acting in such a belligerent manner.)

But, unfortunately, as of today, I see that Liggio has now deleted all three comments. Normally, I'd just accept the apology and say "live and let live." But at this point, I don't know what to make of his back and forth actions.
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But I do agree with you, if he keeps it up, trolling and acting nasty to fellow forum members, then Liggio should be either seriously sanctioned, or banned.

+1

Thanks TD.

I completely agree there are no place for yesterday's comments. I do want to defend Liggio just a bit as I see someone that is extremely passionate about the subject and I personally think he generally means well. He's consistently been called stupid and disregarded by the posters who have the opinion the mob is "dead" or the life is over and say things like "anyone who knows anything about this genre knows it's dead". Which is obviously an opinion he disagrees with. Just this week there was an international arrest of US mobsters so wherever you stand on that topic I think for the fact this is a forum of mafia nerds it remains subjective.

Liggio is very passionate (my guess is he's probably a younger guy) and sometimes he steps over the line and yesterday that went another level which is unacceptable. But as someone who is also passionate about this genre I want to just share that perspective as there's been back and forth between him and others for a while which has built up to this. Everyone should be respectful. I'm sure people will come for me for this comment but there's the inevitable "fun" of the internet

Touche'!....Well put, Brovelli. That was a logical and intelligent viewpoint. Bravo!

Brovelli, as I mentioned in your post above this one, I generally tend to agree with you, and normally I'd just dismiss Liggio's belligerent rantings in his post that I saved above (which he has since deleted,) and just let bygones be bygones. But here's the only caveat to your way of thinking. His "excuse" (if you wanna call it that) for all his belligerent behavior and cursing in his rant towards me was that he was "drunk" as he put it (he has since deleted this comment too.)

As I say, normally, I'd just dismiss it as the rantings of someone drunk, and cut him some slack. But here's the rub...if you read his "allegedly" drunkin' post, you'll notice that he composes his paragraph and the wording in it in perfect order, not to mention that there are no spelling errors, whatsoever.

Now, I don't know about you or anybody else, but the few times I've attempted to write something after I've had a few, and then reread it the next day, I had all kinds of spelling mistakes and what I thought was a cohesive and clearly worded statement I realized was almost comically written. Lol.

...So, all this now makes me think that Liggio didn't write it so innocently, or while mindlessly under the influence of alcohol....It makes me think he has an ulterior motive and agenda. (whatever that could be.)...Trolling, looking to disrupt the flow of this forum, who knows?

The earliest example I know of is from a 1902 letter from Francesco Motisi (NOLA mafioso) to Giuseppe Morello. In the letter they talked about Francesco Marchese and they said of Marchese he was in the “House of Lupo” meaning he was in Ignazio Lupo’s family. In Joe Bonanno’s book “Man of Honor,” he talked about being in the “house of Schiro.” Again, meaning he was in Nicolo Schiro’s family. So, this is probably how people referred to families early on. The Valachi hearings had probably the biggest impact because the family names went from being called whatever the bosses last name was to noe being called Luchese, Gambino, Bonanno, etc. as we can see with the new indictment, the names are still in place for the Gambino family as Lanni told someone he was a Gambino. We have examples of bosses changing the name, for example IIRC Joe Massino got rid of the use of Bonanno in reference to that family and I believe opted for naming it after him.

I don't see how a boss who loved The Life so much he considered renaming a Family after himself ended up flipping the way he did.

I think the drunk claim was an excuse. Anyway you have every right to be frustrated/annoyed/offended, whatever word to use but in general I do think Liggio is passionate about the topic just unfortunately that passion strays into arguments/nonsense too often. There are people on the ends of these computers so I try to understand! But whatever let's move on to with what we're here for

Do you have any insight into what changed over time? Inevitably things got Americanized etc but you would think the name or how you identify what family you belong to would be pretty important. Interesting how this changed and how of all things public/media given names were actually adopted. Maybe that was a generational thing where the newer guys made in the 70s by then knew the families by those media names and adopted them? Who knows

Do you image Stango that come to Henderson,NV and say "Now the DeCavalcantes call the shots"?