The authors agree that the surname has a Greek origin. P. Durante relates it to the Greek verb kathistemi, with the sense of "placed" or "stable". V. Blunda specifies that it derives from the Greek participle catastemènos, meaning "freckled", and maintains that it functioned as a nickname applied to an ancestor for that physical trait. According to Blunda, the ending of the surname preserves the morphological mark of the original Greek participle, and its presence is documented in Sicily.