The authors agree that the surname has a Greek origin and a compound structure. E. Rossoni proposes that it could derive from a nickname formed by the Greek terms kakò ("bad" or "fierce") and pardos ("panther"), and notes that, since in the medieval period the Saracens were sometimes called by the appellative of panthers, a Saracen origin of the founder of the lineage could be suggested. Rossoni also adds the hypothesis of the linguist Rohlfs, according to which the surname would derive from the modern Greek kakòkardos, with the sense of "afflicted" or "sad".

V. Blunda interprets the compound differently: he analyses it as cacòs pàrdos, that is, "Pardo the bad one", where kako- functions as a prefix of negative value applied to the personal name Pardo. According to Blunda, the whole would have operated as a descriptive nickname referring to the character of the ancestor, and over time became a surname through family transmission. Both proposals agree in noting the northeastern area of Sicily —in particular the Messina and Catania areas— as the area of historical rooting of the surname.