The authors agree that this surname has a Greek origin, derived from the term képhalos / cèfalos, which designates the mullet fish. G. Rohlfs notes that the surname is of Greek-Byzantine origin, with presence documented in Basilicata —in localities such as Baragiano and Barile—, as well as in the Calabrian dialect and in Naples. He highlights that in Greece the form Képhalos survives as a surname, which evidences the continuity of the Greek lexicon in southern onomastics.

V. Blunda records it in the Sicilian context and proposes that the term motivated the surname as a nickname applied to the fisherman or as a descriptive reference to the mullet fish, abundant on the coasts of Sicily. Blunda also notes parallel forms such as Cefalá, Cefala, Cefalia and Chiofalo, which share the same etymological root.