The authors agree that this surname is of Sicilian origin and is linked to the lexicon of the traditional confectionery of the island. E. Rossoni suggests that it could derive from a nickname related to the trade of pastry-cook practised by the first bearers of the surname, in reference to the Sicilian cassata, the typical sweet of the region.

V. Blunda broadens this interpretation with greater etymological detail: the surname comes from the dialectal word cassata, meaning "cake of sponge, ricotta and candied fruit". He notes that the term has an Arabic origin, derived from qas'at ("bowl"), and that the sweet goes back to the Arab-Norman tradition of the island. As a surname, it could have originated both in the trade of the confectioner who made it and in a nickname applied to the habitual consumer. Blunda also links this surname with Cassataro, an occupational derivative of the same root.

The areas of greatest presence of the surname are concentrated in Sicily: in the Palermo area —including localities such as Cefalù, Termini Imerese, Mezzojuso, San Mauro Castelverde and Ciminna—, in the Messina area —with Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto— and in Piazza Armerina, in the Enna area.