A. Bongioanni notes that Cacciaguida is, without doubt, a given name and not a nickname, as confirmed by Dante Alighieri's own great-great-grandfather in canto XV of the Paradiso: "Insieme fui cristiano e Cacciaguida". However, Bongioanni acknowledges that no one has so far offered a satisfactory etymology for this name nor for others equally singular documented in the Tuscany of the 12th and 13th centuries. He puts forward two hypotheses: that it could be a nickname of some ancestor turned into a personal name, or the translation of a compound name of Germanic origin.

Bongioanni also documents a series of names of analogous formation recorded in the onomastics of the period: Cacciaconte, Cacciacompagno, Caccialoste, Caccialupi, Cacciaporci and Cacciavillani, among others. He also mentions the southern surname Cacciapuoti, to which the French Chassepot seems to correspond.

E. Rossoni proposes, on the other hand, that the name derives from a nickname referring possibly to the one who organised the hunt for some noble family, and places it in the Florence area. Rossoni agrees with Bongioanni on the link of the name with the ancestor of the poet Dante Alighieri.