The authors agree that the surname derives from the Calabrian term camarda, which designates a thicket of scrub or brushwood, coming from the Late Greek kamarda. This Greek word originally designated a type of tent or shed, and would also have given rise to the place name Camarda, present both in the Matera area and in the L'Aquila area.

G. Rohlfs notes that the surname is of Greek-Byzantine origin, present throughout Calabria, in the Lucanian and Neapolitan sphere, and very frequent in Sicily, where it also appears as a place name in the Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria areas. E. Rossoni adds that the Greek root could also have generated related forms such as Camardi and Camardo, documented in Abruzzo and Molise.

V. Blunda highlights that in Sicily the term functioned as a nickname applied to the ancestor, possibly for a provisional residence or for a trade linked to that type of installation, before becoming a surname. F. Miranda notes that the surname is present in specific areas of Sicily —especially in the Palermo, Messina, Catania and Trapani areas—, as well as in the Brindisi area and in Basilicata.