E. Rossoni considers that the surname is characteristic of Sardinia, with presence also in the Catanzaro area. He proposes several hypotheses of origin: it could derive from Monte Caria, situated near Teulada in the Cagliari area; the Calabrian variant would come from the place name Caria in the Catanzaro area. Rossoni also contemplates a possible derivation from the name Karya, a region of Anatolia, or from the Latin cognomen Carus. In Sardinian, the term carîa designates the gilthead bream —a fish—, a word taken from the Genoese canina. The surname appears in medieval Sardinian documents and among the signatories of the Peace of Eleonora of 1388.

V. Blunda provides a different etymology for the Sicilian form: he derives it from the Greek carìa, "walnut", a term that designates the fruit of the walnut tree. According to Blunda, the surname functioned originally as a nickname applied to the one who lived near a walnut tree, and subsequently became a surname along the family line.