The authors agree that this surname derives from the place name Canale, very frequent in Italy, or from the circumstance that a family lived next to a canal.

E. De Felice notes that the gentilic Da Canale appears as early as 1090 as a surname or second name in Venetian documents, which makes it one of the oldest testimonies of its use. He indicates that the surname is distributed mainly in northern Italy, with presence especially in the northeast —in the regions of Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige—, and also in the southern peninsula, with high frequency in southern Calabria.

E. Rossoni broadens the geographical picture and notes that the surname can derive from place names called Canale documented in very diverse areas: the provinces of Terni, Cuneo, Avellino, Belluno, Genoa, Rome, Trento and Bologna. He also specifies clusters of concentration in the Treviso, Belluno and Venice areas, in Trentino, and in the Gorizia area —where the variant Canal appears—, while the form Canale is distributed throughout Italy and the variant Canali predominates in the centre and north of the country.