E. Rossoni characterises it as an infrequent surname, clearly Sicilian, documented in Syracuse and in Buccheri, a locality of the Syracuse area. According to Rossoni, the surname would be of Greek origin and would derive from the Italianization of the Greek surnames Corkinas or Korkinas.

V. Blunda proposes a different etymology: he derives it from the Greek cyrcina, a term that designates a "small turkey", interpreting the surname as a nickname applied originally to an ancestor. Blunda also notes that it is a diminutive derivative of the Greek root corresponding to the turkey, and relates it to the surname Ciurca —recorded in the immediately previous entry of his work—, to which he attributes the same root.

Both authors agree on the Greek origin of the surname and on its Sicilian rooting, although they differ in the specific etymon: Rossoni links it to the Italianization of Greek onomastic forms (Corkinas / Korkinas), while Blunda connects it with a Greek term of precise zoological meaning.