The sources differ substantially both in the etymology and in the geographical distribution of this surname.

E. Rossoni derives it from the Croatian surname Komic, which in turn would take its name from the village of Komic, near Udbina, in Croatia. From the geographical point of view, Rossoni notes that the surname is very rare in Italy and appears in specific areas: in Pinzano al Tagliamento, in the Pordenone area; in the Udine area; and in Trieste. The Croatian surname Komic, for its part, would be typical of the Gorizia area and of San Floriano del Collio.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a completely different etymology circumscribed to Sicily: he derives it from the Greek comìces, a form that would correspond to a derivative of the Byzantine onomastic repertoire with an ending characteristic of Sicilian Greek. Blunda links it to the lexical family of the Latin title comes, equivalent to "count".

Both proposals are incompatible with each other and respond to completely different linguistic traditions and geographical areas: one of Slavic base and diffusion in the northeast of Italy, the other of Greek base and presence in Sicily. The divergence could be explained by the existence of independent clusters of origin, although neither of the two authors explicitly raises that possibility.