Origin of the Surname

According to Joseph Fucilla, Our Italian Surnames, 1949, Gangale means "jaw" in the Calabrese dialect. Professor Francesco Altimari at the University of Calabria confirms this:

On the origin of your last name I can only confirm the thesis of the known linguist Gerhard Rohlfs that in the Dictionary of the Last Names and Nicknames in Calabria, edited in Ravenna in 1979, p.119, it derives from the Calabrian "gangale" = jaw. The area of diffusion of the last name is limited to northern Calabria, with occurrences in the cirotano (zone of Ciro) and in the Sila.

In 1998, the name was most numerous in Pallagorio (18 households with listed telephone numbers), Ciro Marina and Ciro (17), and Carfizzi (8). A partial search of the civil records of 19th century in la Sila and il Cirotano revealed that Pallagorio was the largest concentration Gangales. The evidence so far indicates the Pallagorio-Ciro area as being the origin of the Gangales.

The philologist Giuseppe Tommaso Gangale (1898 - 1978) specialized in the language and culture of the Arbëreshë, the Albanians who migrated to southern Italy and Sicily in the 15th and 16th centuries. He was a compatriot of Antonio Gramsci, the Italian social theorist (and communist), who was Arbëreshë. Gangale wrote a poem in Arbëreshë, Dialusha e Gharrahesy, in which he describes his emotional response to finding 300-year-old papers referring to Dialusa Gangale of the village of Caraffa. His joy of discovery would resonate with any genealogist.

Nowhere have I seen where a researcher concludes that the surname Gangale is of Arbëreshë origin; however, there is a strong correlation. 200 years ago, the surname was confined to a small triangle that includes Crotone, Ciro, and San Giovanni in Fiore. This area happens to be an area of Arbëreshë enclaves: Caraffa (Garafa), Carfizzi (Karfici), Pallagorio (Puhëriu), San Nicola dell'Viola (Shën Kolli), Vena di Maida, Arietta, Marcedusa, Andali, Zagarise, Amato, Zangarona, and Gizzeria. Today the surname Gangale is most numerous in Pallagorio and Carfizzi. In his poem, Giuseppe Gangale wrote "Ghankaly" as the Arbëreshë form of the surname.

Both Fucilla and Rohlfs state that "gangale" is the Calabrian word for "jaw;" however, in standard Italian, the technical zoological word is "ganascia," whereas the more commonly used word is "mascella." Although "gangale" has some similarity to "ganascia," it may be that they are unrelated. The Calabrian word for "jaw" may have its origins in Arbëreshë, not Italian.

As interesting asides, the surname Gangale is found, albeit rarely, in northern India, where it might be a variation of the more common Ganguly; also, the surname belongs to an Australian aborigine family in the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, Northern Territory. Also, the surname appears in Congo.