E. Rossoni identifies two areas of origin for this surname: one in Lombardy and another in Piedmont. The Lombard variant would derive from the place name Carena, a locality of the Morobbia valley, in Switzerland, on the Helvetian side of Lake Como. The Piedmontese variant corresponds to a noble lineage that from 1711 held the lordship over Annone and Merone, near Lecco.

V. Blunda provides a different etymology for the Sicilian case: the surname would come from the dialectal word carìna, meaning "spinal column" or "backbone". As a surname it would have arisen from a nickname applied to a person of upright bearing or, by metaphorical extension, to the one who had a long back like the keel of a boat. The word is related to the Italian carena ("keel"), in a semantic play that links human anatomy with naval architecture, peculiar to the lexicon of an island marked by port culture.

Taken together, the surname presents independent origins in different regions of Italy, with a northern branch of probable toponymic base and a Sicilian branch of dialectal and appellative character.