E. Rossoni proposes that the surname would derive from one of the numerous place names that contain the root canonica, and links it especially to Piedmont. R. Brondolo, for his part, offers a different perspective: according to this author, the surname is spread in Lombardy and in the Swiss canton of Ticino from the 12th century, and designated people linked to the Church or who lived near the canonica, that is, the parish house.

Both interpretations are not necessarily mutually exclusive: the word canonica may have given rise both to place names —places identified by the presence of a parish house— and to the surname directly, from the ecclesiastical or residential environment of those who received it.