E. Rossoni links this surname with the Greek place name Kalami, a name present in several localities of the area of ancient Greek influence, and notes that the Greek term ta kalàmia means "the reeds". According to Rossoni, the surname is typical of the Trapani area.

V. Blunda agrees on the Greek etymon, but approaches it from the lexical angle: it derives from calàmia, "reed", a word that designates the grass plant with a hollow stem. For Blunda, the Sicilian surname would have functioned originally as a nickname applied to the ancestor for his residence near a reed bed or for some trait associated with the plant, which over time became a surname along the family line in the onomastics of southern Italy.