The authors agree that this is a surname of Sicilian origin, considered a hypocoristic form of the Late Latin name Brancatius, which in turn descends from the Byzantine name Pancratius (Pancrazio in Italian). It is related to variants such as Brancato, Brancatello, Brancati and Brancazio.

F. Miranda notes that the root of the surname is the term branca ("claw, talon"), in its diminutive form brancatello, which would have functioned as a nickname for the founding ancestor of the lineage. In the Sicilian dialect, brancata designates both a blow of the claw and what can be taken with one hand, that is, a handful —for example, una brancata di grano—. Miranda also indicates that the surname is present in around seventy Italian municipalities: mainly in Sicily, in the provinces of Messina, Catania, Palermo, Agrigento, Trapani, Syracuse and Enna, and with more limited presence in Lazio, Lombardy, Piedmont, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Liguria.

According to E. Rossoni, cited in Surnames in Italy, Brancatelli is typically Sicilian, especially in the Messina area, while Brancatello, much rarer, is located in the Palermo area. It is also considered that the presence of the surname in northern Italy can be explained by the expansion of southern surnames towards the north due to migratory phenomena of the 20th century. In Malta, records of the surname are documented from the year 1500.