According to E. Rossoni, Cefalà belongs to a group of surnames derived from the medieval name Cefalo, an Italianisation of the Greek name Kefalos, related to the Greek word kephalé ("head"). In some cases, Rossoni considers that forms such as Cefala and Cefali can come directly from the Greek or Arvanite surnames Cefalà and Cefalì, preserved in southern Italy thanks to the influence of the communities of Greek origin.

P. Durante agrees in noting a Greek origin, derived from kephalé, "head", a root that gave rise to numerous names and surnames in the areas of Hellenic tradition of the Mediterranean.

G. Rohlfs identifies Cefalà as a surname of Greek-Byzantine origin, especially widespread in Calabria, in the provinces of Reggio Calabria and Catanzaro. He relates it directly to the Greek κεφαλή (kephalé, "head"), preserved also in the Grecanic dialects of southern Italy. He also notes that in the emigration to Argentina it is frequent to find the form Cefala, without a graphic accent.

For his part, V. Blunda derives the surname from the Greek cefalàs, a term that describes a person with a "big head". According to this interpretation, the surname would have arisen as a descriptive nickname based on a physical characteristic of the ancestor, following a very common model in Greek and Sicilian onomastics.

Taken together, the authors agree in attributing to Cefalà a Greek origin linked to the word kephalé ("head"), whether as a personal name, a surname of Greek-Byzantine tradition or a descriptive nickname related to physical traits.