E. Rossoni notes that the surname derives from a nickname based on the Arabic term qaid, meaning "governor" or "the one who commands a territory", and places it as typical of the Trapani area, with presence in localities such as Erice and Marsala.

V. Blunda agrees on the Arabic origin of the term but develops it in greater detail. He indicates that the surname comes from the Sicilian dialectal word cajitu, equivalent to "ringleader" or "leader of the people", and that as a surname it would have arisen from a nickname applied to the one who in fact exercised the leadership of a faction or group within the community, an unofficial but recognised function in the rural localities of Sicily. Blunda links this term with the Arabic qa'id ("commander"), a lexical legacy of the Islamic domination of the island between the 9th and 11th centuries.