Mango was born on 14 April 1928 in Istanbul, Turkey, the youngest of three sons of Alexander A. Mango, a descendant of a Genoese family who came to Istanbul via Chios, and Adelaide, known as Ada, (née Damonov) Mango, a refugee from Baku.[5] One of his brothers, Andrew Mango, who lived and worked in London becoming head of the South East European Service of the BBC World Service, was also a respected scholar and author on Turkey.[6] His other brother, Anthony, moved to America and became a senior figure in the United Nations.[5] They were raised in a multi-lingual household where the common language was French but the children also spoke Russian, Greek, English and Turkish.