E. Rossoni places the origin of this surname in the Norman tradition: the Cabarret family would have arrived in Italy in the retinue of Count Roger d'Hauteville —son of Tancred and brother of Robert Guiscard—, from whom it received the barony of Sicamino in the Messina area. According to Rossoni, in the 12th century a Riccardo Cavarretta received the Castellany of Messina from King William II of Sicily. The surname is also documented in the Crotone area, in Calabria, and in the Trapani and Palermo areas, in Sicily.

V. Blunda proposes a different explanation, of a dialectal and functional character: the surname would derive from the Sicilian word cavarèttu, which designated the "assistant of the head of the night watch". This trade formed part of the urban surveillance system of the Kingdom of Sicily, organised in patrols that walked the streets during the night to prevent thefts, altercations and fires. Blunda notes particular documentation in Palermo and Messina during the 16th and 17th centuries, which makes the surname a testimony of the old structures of Sicilian municipal police.