The authors agree that the surname has a Sicilian dialectal origin and derives from the word carciòttu (also recorded as carciottu or cacciottu), a term that designated the "hat" in the popular speech of Sicily. F. Miranda specifies that the form comes from the Vocabolario siciliano of Piccitto, and notes that the surname is present in about 35 municipalities distributed between Sicily, Piedmont, Calabria, Lazio, Tuscany and Liguria. In Sicily, the main cluster is concentrated in the Catania area —with localities such as Belpasso, Paternò and Biancavilla—, followed by the Messina, Enna, Caltanissetta, Agrigento and Syracuse areas.

V. Blunda broadens the analysis by noting that the surname could have originated both in the trade of the hatter and in a nickname applied to the one who wore a distinctive head garment. He also places it within a broader group of Sicilian surnames linked to headwear, together with Berritta, Coppola, Bannò and Birriola, all of them testimonies of the role of the headdress as a marker of condition and provenance in pre-modern Sicilian society.