The authors agree that Aricò is a surname peculiar to southern Calabria and the area of the Strait of Messina, with extended presence also in Sicily. Its origin is linked to the Greek adjective agrikós, "of the field", which in the Greek dialects of southern Italy —known as Griko— took the forms agricò or aricò, meaning "of the field; wild, rustic". E. De Felice stresses that these dialectal forms are a direct continuation of the Greek and Modern Greek adjective agrikós. E. Rossoni and Surnames in Italy also agree that the variant Arico, without an accent, is probably due to a transcription error through the loss of the final graphic accent.

F. Miranda specifies that the diffusion of the surname is concentrated mainly in the Messina area —with localities such as Milazzo, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto and Taormina— and extends towards the Catania area, the Syracuse area and, to a lesser extent, towards the Palermo, Agrigento and Enna areas.

V. Blunda proposes an alternative reading of exclusively Sicilian origin: he derives the form agricù from the local dialect with the meaning of "acid, harsh", interpreting it as a nickname applied to a person of sour character, in parallel with surnames such as Amaro and in opposition to Duci. This hypothesis differs from the Greek etymology upheld by the other authors.