The authors agree that this surname derives from the Byzantine Greek katepánō, the title of a high civil and military official of the Byzantine Empire in charge of the government of the provinces of southern Italy.

E. De Felice notes that the term designated, in the Norman period, a royal official invested with judicial, administrative and commercial functions. He highlights as an example the catapan of Bari, who in the 11th century governed the territory comprising Puglia and Basilicata. He considers that the surname is spread in the southern peninsula, with greater frequency in the Naples area.

G. Rohlfs contributes that in the Calabrian dialect catapanu designated the "official of the Comune in charge of the good order of the market", so that the term already reflected a more limited function than that of the high imperial office. He places the surname in the Lucanian, Neapolitan and Sicilian sphere.

V. Blunda documents the process of semantic degradation of the term in Sicily: from provincial military governor it came to designate, in Sicilian speech, minor agents of public order, with the sense of "municipal guard" or "constable". P. Durante agrees in noting that same journey, from high imperial magistrate to municipal magistrate.