E. Rossoni attributes the surname to an Albanian origin, derived from the name of the city of Kajca or Caizza, in the region of Gjirokastër (Albania). Rossoni also distinguishes variants with differentiated geographical distribution: Caizza appears in Campobello di Licata, in the Agrigento area; Caizzi presents specific areas in Naples, Vieste, Foggia, Bari and Palma di Montechiaro; and Caizzo is located in the area between Basilicata, Puglia and Molise.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a Greek origin: the surname would derive from the personal name Caìtsas, preserved through the Byzantine transmission in southern Italy. According to Blunda, the Sicilian spelling represents an Italianisation of the original name, in which the Greek ts was resolved as zz, and the surname became consolidated from that personal name in Sicily.

Both hypotheses are independent and are not incompatible: the Albanian one would explain the continental clusters of southern Italy, while the Greek one would account for the Sicilian variant.