The authors agree that Buscema is a Sicilian surname of Arabic origin, linked to the name or nickname Abū šāmah / Abu Shama, "the one with the mole".

E. Rossoni proposes two hypotheses. On the one hand, he derives it from the place name Buscemi, in the Syracuse area, and from its archaic form Bussema or Buscema, of undoubted Arabic origin. On the other, he links it to the medieval name Buscema or Buscemi, an Italianisation of the Arabic name Abu Shama ("the man with the mole"), one of the epithets of the Prophet Muhammad, in reference to the Seal of Prophethood that he bore on his back. He notes that Buscema is typical of southern Sicily, especially of the Catania, Syracuse and Ragusa areas, while the variant Buscemi is specific to the whole island.

V. Blunda includes it in the group of Sicilian surnames formed with Abū ("father of"). He derives it from the etymon Abū šāmah, meaning "the one with the big mole", a descriptive nickname applied to an ancestor with a distinctive physical mark.