I've never really came across a good explanation for how a family takes it's name. Or is there one?

I would think a boss wouldn't want his name out there for obvious reasons but then again I could see ego getting in the way.

So...anyone know?


Thanks
Ron

Well, obviously when the "commission" was formed in the early '30s, each family was named after it's leader (it's Don, if you will).

As far as the constant changes over the years, I believe that the media and law enforcement have had as much to do with labeling the families as the families themselves.

But that's just my opinion.

Seems like a fairly good opinion to me PB!

I think it's more tnan opinion--it's a fact:
The Dons and their subordinates usually referred to "our borgata," or "our family," or "our organization." They never really had names until the Valachi hearings. Then Valachi told his interrogators that "this family is headed by Vito Genovese, that family is headed by Joe Bonanno," and the names got put on top of the charts the FBI showed (see here for the Valachi charts--scroll down to the bottom):

http://www.gangrule.com/gallery/maps.html

The news media and most law enforcement at that time were aware that organized crime existed, but they didn't have much of an idea of how it was organized. Valachi supplied the org. charts. From then on, media used the names.

It's interesting how some names stuck and others were changed. Here I'm guessing that the media and police stuck with famous and prominent names--i.e., the Genovese Family retains that i.d. even though Don Vitone has been dead for 39 years. On the other hand, the former Profaci Family got renamed Columbo because of Joe's lunatic pubicity-hound antics.

Turnbull, I read in a book that Joe Massino called the Bonanno Family the Massino Family. He changed it because he said that Don Peppino had disgraced their Borgata by writing Man of Honour.

That's a typical example of how the news media, not the families and Dons, make up names:

In Joe Bonanno's autobiography, "A Man of Honor" [sic] he decreed that, after he "retired," the family he had headed shouldn't carry his name anymore--as if he had anything to say about it. The family went through a protracted period of chaos, with no strong leader emerging.

Massino finally settled down as an effective leader. But far from naming the family after himself, Massino took the opposite tack: he closed the family social clubs, pulled in street operations much closer, and generally demanded a low profile for everyone in the family--including himself. The last thing he'd do would be to rename the family after himself. But the media, hearing that the Commission finally restored the family seat, started the rumor that it was now called the "Massino Family."

Thanks! Some good info there.

Always wondered if the media or law enforcement had more to do with puttin a name to a family than the family itself.

Thanks again.

Ron