G. Rohlfs identifies this surname as of Greek-Byzantine origin, documented in localities of the province of Catanzaro (Polia) and of the province of Reggio Calabria (Pazzano), in addition to Sicily. He derives it from the Greek κρηνίτης, meaning "of the spring", and considers it a reflection of the Byzantine presence in southern Italy.

P. Durante agrees on the Greek origin and notes as the etymon the term krene, "spring".

V. Blunda, for his part, proposes a different Greek form, clenètses, which he interprets as "little spring", that is, a diminutive of the same base term. According to this author, the surname would have functioned originally as a microtoponym applied to the one who came from a place with that characteristic or lived near a small spring in the Sicilian rural landscape.