G. Rohlfs places this surname in the Greek-Byzantine tradition and documents it in the city of Reggio Calabria, in the province of Catanzaro —with presence in Mileto and the Tropea area—, as well as in the regions of Basilicata and Campania. He analyses it as a diminutive of Cola, an abbreviated form of Nicola, equivalent to the Greek surname Nikolakis, and notes that Colace is a sibling form of Colaci.

V. Blunda agrees on the Greek origin and on the diminutive value, but refers directly to the form Nicolakès, meaning "little Nicola". He describes it as a hypocoristic of the personal name Nicola preserved in the Byzantine onomastic tradition, and relates it to the surname Colizzi, derived from the same name through another Greek suffix.

P. Durante, on the other hand, proposes a different and independent etymology: he links the surname to the Greek kholòs, with the sense of "irascible", without reference to the proper name Nicola or to the Byzantine onomastic tradition. This interpretation does not coincide with that of Rohlfs or that of Blunda, and both etymological lines remain, for the moment, without reconciliation in the available sources.