G. Rohlfs identifies this surname as of Greek-Byzantine origin, with presence in the Catanzaro area and in Sicily. He compares it with the Greek surname Kitsa, noting that it reflects the influence of the Byzantine presence in southern Italy.

V. Blunda derives it from the Greek citsas, and specifies that it is an element of the Greek onomastic repertoire transmitted to eastern Sicily during the Byzantine period, with an ending characteristic of the Greek of the island, fixed as a surname in the medieval Greek-speaking rural environment.