E. De Felice notes that this surname originates in the transformation into a surname of the name Cicco, which in southern Italy functions as a popular hypocoristic of Francesco. He also indicates that the patronymic D'Accico and Daccico reflects a form Accico, the result of a reinforcement with prosthetic a- characteristic of the Puglia area. In the Veneto, on the other hand, De Felice identifies a different base: the affectionate regional word peculiar to child language cicco or cico, meaning "small; child, kid", which also underlies the surnames Cichetti and Cicutto.

V. Blunda proposes a different etymology, of Greek root: he derives the surname from the term ciccòs, meaning "rooster". According to this interpretation, the word would have given rise to a nickname applied to an ancestor for his haughty character, his upright bearing or some trait associated with the animal in the popular tradition of the Greek Mediterranean. This proposal, linked to the sphere of Sicily, finds no correspondence in the analysis of De Felice and must be considered as an independent hypothesis.

E. Rossoni provides a detailed geographical description of the distribution of the surname and its variants. Cicco appears in areas of Rome and Nettuno, in Naples and Casoria, in Andria in the Bari area, in the Catanzaro area and in Villa San Giovanni in the Reggio Calabria area, with a minor presence in Gangi, in the Palermo area. The variant Ciccotti, for its part, is characteristic of Lazio, with presence in Rome, Guidonia Montecelio, Anagni in the Frosinone area, Canino in the Viterbo area and Aprilia in the Latina area.