In another site, "yale" was said to be a synonym for "tragelaphus".The "yale" was a mythical beast with horns that could swivel, and was used as a heraldric device used by some English dukes. I wonder if some of their retainers took this as their name, and that's how the iniversity in New Haven got its name.
http://www.kwantlen.bc.ca/~donna/sca/yale/