E. Rossoni notes that the surname derives from the Latin cognomen Cervius, documented in an old Roman inscription and in a parchment preserved in Bergamo. According to Rossoni, its presence extends through Emilia, Lombardy, the Treviso area and the Rome and Frosinone areas.

F. De Laurentiis proposes a different etymological base: the Italian term cervo, which designates the deer as an animal. According to De Laurentiis, these surnames were formed in some cases from humorous names and nicknames or trades linked to the deer —or to its most notable characteristic, the antlers, popularly associated with conjugal infidelity— and in other cases from place names of the same etymology, such as Cervo, in the province of Imperia, or Cervia, in the province of Ravenna.