Which is the correct term? Ive personally always referred to the honoured society as Cosa Nostra, my reasoning stems from Joe Cago telling the feds its Cosa Nostra, Valachi was straightened out almost at the inception of American Cosa Nostra, so i figure if anybody knows the proper name, its Joe Cago. Also the translation doesnt make sense "The Our Thing". I suspect it all started when in the papers reporters and police started referring to "The Cosa Nostra" which they added La in place of the the. I found an article about Sammy The Stoolie, who actually corrects a D.A when she refers to it as La Cosa Nostra, telling her theres no La, its just Cosa Nostra