The authors agree that this surname refers to the figure of the basket-maker or maker of baskets, and is associated with a root related to the woven container. G. Rohlfs considers it of Greek-Byzantine origin, documents it in the provinces of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, and compares it with the Greek surname Κανιστρᾶς, meaning "basket-maker". He also notes its presence in the Naples and Sicily areas.

V. Blunda places it specifically in Sicily and derives it from the dialectal word cannìstra, which designates a "basket of woven plant fibres". According to Blunda, the surname could have arisen both from the trade of the basket-maker and from a nickname, in a context in which the craft manufacture of baskets of reed, wicker and palm was a traditional activity widespread in the Sicilian rural world. He also notes that this surname forms a series with Cannistraro and Cannistrato, variants on the same lexical root.

P. Durante agrees on the Greek origin and points as the etymon to the words kaneon or kanna, which likewise refer to the sphere of plant weaving and basketry.