The authors agree that this surname has its origin in the dialectal word cannàta, which designates a jug or clay pitcher for water. G. Rohlfs specifies that the term comes from the Greek κανάτα and that the surname, of Greek-Byzantine origin, is documented throughout Calabria, as well as in the Neapolitan and Sicilian sphere. G. P. Holmes agrees in noting that the word is of medieval Greek origin, incorporated into Sicilian.

V. Blunda emphasises the Sicilian character of the surname and warns that the popular association with the Italian cantata —a musical composition— is a false etymology. According to Blunda, the surname could have arisen as a nickname or from the trade of the potter who made that type of vessel, and he records the diminutive form Cannatella, also documented as a surname in Sicily.

E. Rossoni adds that in Calabria the term cannata also designates the chamber pot, and proposes besides that the surname could derive from the trade of maker of fishing nets called cannate. Geographically, Rossoni distinguishes the form Cannata in Sicily, Cannatà in the Reggio Calabria area, and the variant Cannataro in the Cosenza area.