The surname has multiple independent ancestral stocks (ceppi), arising in different regions with no direct connection between them. The consulted works concur in tracing its base to the Latin word cerasum ("cherry"), whether through nicknames derived from it or through its dialectal variants. It is also recorded as a nickname from the dialect word cerasa, meaning "cherry."

E. Rossoni further notes that the surname can derive from place names sharing the same root, such as Cerasa, in the province of Pesaro-Urbino; Cerasuolo, in the province of Isernia; Ceresara, in the area of Mantua; or Cereseto Monferrato, in the area of Alessandria. Rossoni documents the form Cerasa in central Italy, the area of Lecce, and the area of Palermo; Cerasino in the area of Brindisi; Ceresa in Lombardy and Piedmont; and Ceresini in the area of Parma.

V. Blunda proposes a distinct etymology for the Sicilian context, pointing to a Greek base: the term ceràsia, which designates the cherry tree. According to Blunda, the surname in Sicily would have functioned as a microtoponym, applied to someone who came from a plot planted with cherry trees or who lived near one — a pattern typical of Sicilian surnames derived from local flora of Greek origin.