The authors agree that the surname derives from the Italian term canna, although they differ in the nuance of the derivation. E. Rossoni notes that it would come from nicknames based on diminutive forms of canna, referring both to the utensil peculiar to tavern-keepers and to the plants of a reed bed, without ruling out a possible relation with cinnamon, an aromatic bark much used in the Middle Ages to flavour wine.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, circumscribes the analysis to the Sicilian sphere and proposes a dialectal etymology: the word cannèdda, which designates specifically the "thin reed". As a surname, it could have originated in a nickname applied to a tall and thin person —a plant metaphor frequent in Sicilian popular onomastics— or linked to the trade of the worker of fine reeds for craft uses. Blunda warns that this dialectal word should not be confused with the Italian cannella referring to the spice "cinnamon".

As for its geographical distribution, Rossoni documents presence of the surname in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna in the Rimini area, Tuscany in the Arezzo and Grosseto areas, Umbria in the Perugia area, the Marche in the Ascoli Piceno area, Lazio in the Viterbo, Rome and Latina areas, Campania in the Salerno area, Puglia in the Bari and Taranto areas, Calabria in the Vibo Valentia area, and Sicily in the Palermo, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Syracuse, Ragusa, Trapani and Messina areas.