The authors agree that Buscetta is a typically Sicilian surname, although they propose different origins.

E. Rossoni proposes two hypotheses. On the one hand, he derives it from the Arabic expression Bu'sh Sayid ("father of Sayid"); on the other, from the Sicilian term buscetta ("brush"). He notes that Buscetta is typically Sicilian, peculiar to Palermo and to Mazara del Vallo, in the Trapani area. The variant Busetta is also Sicilian, of Palermo and of the Trapani area.

V. Blunda presents it as a Sicilian surname of dialectal origin, formed from the name of an object. It derives from the dialectal word buscètta, meaning "brush". As a surname it could have originated in the trade of the painter or decorator who used this tool, or in that of the brush maker, products of specialised use in workshops of artistic painting, mural decoration and sign-writing, present in the medieval and modern Sicilian cities in the service of churches, palaces and shops.