The authors agree that it is a surname peculiar to Sicily, of dialectal origin and zoonymic character. It derives from the Sicilian dialectal word amìddu, which designates the camel, an animal introduced on the island by the Arabs during their domination (9th–11th centuries). By metaphorical extension, the term came to be applied to people of great stature and clumsy or ungainly gait, which would have given rise to the nickname that later became a surname.

F. Miranda documents different dialectal variants of the surname according to the locality: Gamiddu, Camiddu, Iamiddu, Gamiddru, Amiddru and Amiddu, all with the sense of "camel" or "lanky", according to the Vocabolario siciliano of Piccitto. Miranda also notes a specific presence in Lombardy, besides Sicily, where the surname is located in the Catania area —specifically in Paternò— and in the Enna area —in Regalbuto—.

V. Blunda goes deeper into the semantic motivation: the analogy between the silhouette of the camel and that of a tall and ungainly person would be the base of the original nickname, a habitual mechanism in the Sicilian zoonymic surnames where exotic fauna served as a referent to characterise physically an ancestor.