E. De Stefani documents this surname in Viaso —a hamlet of Socchieve, in the Carnia, a mountainous area of northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia— from the first half of the 17th century, with Latin and Romance spellings such as Capitis Villae, Capivillae, Capoville and à capitevillae. Over time it became a surname and, although it became extinct in that locality, it survives with high density in Aviano, in the province of Pordenone, as well as in Venice and in Crespano del Grappa, in the Treviso area.

De Stefani analyses it as a toponymic surname formed from capo + villa, which designated the area situated at the head of a villaggio. He relates it to a Friulian-Venetian onomastic family of parallel composition, made up of surnames such as Mezzavilla and Sonvilla, derived from the position within the village. The variant Caovilla, with vowel monophthongisation habitual in the Veneto, is attested in Aquileia.

E. Rossoni places it in the northeast of Italy, especially in the Padua and Treviso areas, and proposes that it could derive from a locality called Capovilla in the province of Vicenza, or refer to those who lived in the elevated part or at the beginning of the village, which agrees with the etymological interpretation of De Stefani.