E. Rossoni notes that the derivations of this surname are multiple according to the region. In northern Italy, it would come from a topographical feature linked to canals: in dialect, conca designates the lock, that is, the mechanism for regulating the waters. In southern Italy, on the other hand, the surname probably originates in nicknames linked to place names such as Conca Casale, in the Isernia area; Conca d'Oro, in the Taranto area; Conca dei Marini, in the Salerno area; and Conca della Campania, in the Caserta area. The zones of greatest presence comprise the province of Caserta, the province of Catanzaro, the province of Bari and the area between the provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Milan and Cremona.

V. Blunda considers it a Sicilian surname of dialectal and geomorphological origin. It derives from the dialectal word conca, meaning "hollow, depression of the terrain, basin", which designates the natural depressions of the landscape, frequently with seasonal accumulation of water, used as a watering place for livestock or as an irrigation reserve. As a surname it could have originated in a minor place name referring to a property situated in one of these depressions, a habitual motivation in the rural toponymic surnames of Sicily.