The authors agree that the surname is concentrated in northern Italy, with probable presence in the Padua area. E. Rossoni notes that Capuzzoni, a derived form, is peculiar to Lombardy, with origin in the area between Pavia and Milan. Both authors agree that the surname would derive from nicknames linked to physical characteristics or to a place name related to activities of intense smell, such as the tanning of hides.

Regarding the regional meanings of the term, the authors agree on three main senses. In southern Italy, capuzzo could designate the head of a group of field workers, of a gang of farmers or of shepherds and cowherds. In the Naples area, it was also the regional name of the mullet, also called capòzzo. In the Veneto, the term could refer to the curly-leaf cabbage, a variety whose leaves roll up forming a compact ball.

F. De Laurentiis specifies that in the southern context the term designated specifically the head of a peasant or settler family unit, a distinction that Rossoni formulates more generally as the head of a group of workers or shepherds.