E. Rossoni proposes that the surname could derive from the name of Mount Cornia, located in the middle valley of the Taro, in the Parma area. According to this author, the surname is typical of the Reggio Emilia, Bologna and especially the Modena area.

V. Blunda offers a different and geographically distant etymology: according to this author, the surname comes from the Greek cornìas, as a derivative of the Byzantine onomastic repertoire. Blunda relates it to the Greek presence in eastern Sicily, and notes its kinship with the surname Cornice, recorded in the immediately following entry of his work, both with an ending characteristic of the same linguistic substrate.

The two etymologies are incompatible with each other and correspond to completely different regional traditions: one northern, of toponymic base, and another Sicilian, of Greek-Byzantine heritage. The surname would present, in that case, independent clusters of origin arisen in different regions without direct relation between them.