I'll make an attempt to add to the substantial corpus here.

Earlier it was discussed how the FBI used the Wrong Name. That is correct. Arguably the informants who say that the official name is Cosa Nostra are yet another example of life imitating art. I think other researchers have proven that the sequence of events was follows:

(1) Every regional family had a different euphemistic name (i.e., "the outfit", "the syndicate", "our thing")
(2) The FBI wanted to name it badly, and jumped the gun, using the wrong name
(3) Newspapermen were tipped by the FBI, so started to use "Cosa Nostra"
(4) Low-level wiseguys across the country read news accounts, and started assuming that was the cool term.

These concepts are explained in a great new book on mob myths that just came out. "Mafia Mistaken: Why Everything You Think You Know About Italian American Organized Crime is Wrong" by John de Luca.
. It will be of interest to devotees of this thread.


Some of the other stuff revealed in the book, with researched notes, are

The Mob Isn’t Really Nationwide Anymore

Some entities we thought of as “Families” Were really Glorified Crews

The “Commission” Is Largely Powerless, sort of mythological

Mobsters don't make that much money

and a pretty bold claim:

Nothing would stop any Italian American criminals from starting an organization in any American city (save NY perhaps) and calling it a mafia family. Thoughts on that claim?