Whats his real name? Charles or Salvatore?

Luciano wasn't even his real name!

His real name was Salvatore Lucania. Eventually he changed it to Charles Luciano.

You picked the name Luciano as part of your board name. You should know this stuff? :p




Don Cardi

Ohh I get it now!
Thanks DC

He was born as Salvatore Lucania, but he felt "Sal" was a girl´s name, and he changed it for Charles Luciano.

Then he was "Lucky" Luciano, I think he was "Lucky" because he survived to a few attempts against his life but I am not quite sure, Turnbull might explian you better than me.

I would think Frank Costello was "Lucky". Vincent Gigante shot him in teh head and he still survived!

And if his last name was Luciana, how come he is known as Lucky Luciano?

As I told you before, Turnbull, SC or Don Cardi might explain you better.

About Frank Costello, he is "Superman". Check Mafia jokes

I guess Salvatore Lucania sounded too Sicilian, too old-fashioned. And he wanted to sound more American: Charlie.

At first he changed his first name from Salvatore to Charlie because as Don pappo said, he felt that Sal sounded like a girl's name. But Knowing the road that he had chosen at such a young age, was not the straight and narrow one, he felt that by changing his last name he would spare his family any potential embarassment that he may cause them in living the life of a mobster. Hence Charlie Luciano.

Some accounts claim that he got the name Lucky because he survived an attack that should have left him for dead.

But I've read other stories that he got the name Lucky earlier than that because he was Lucky when it came to gambling.


Don Cardi

Yes, but they seem to be wrong because i've read many times that Luciano was called 'Lucky' before that happenned.

I go for that story too, but another theory is that his not-italian friends couldn't pronounce Lucania and changed it to Lucky.