G. Rohlfs identifies this surname as of Greek-Byzantine origin, documented in the cities and provinces of Catanzaro and Reggio Calabria, as well as in Sicily. He derives it from the Grecanic dialect of the Bova area —a locality of Calabria where Greek was historically preserved— from the word krisafi, which means "gold", related to the Modern Greek χρυσάφι. He also notes that in Greece the form Chrysaphis survives as a surname, and refers the reader to the entry Grisafi, a related variant.

V. Blunda, for his part, analyses it from the Greek crysàfes, with the sense of "golden", breaking down the term into the prefix crys-, "gold". According to this author, the surname would have arisen as a nickname referring to an ancestor, whether by his golden hair or by some trait linked to the precious metal. Blunda relates it to surnames of the same semantic field, such as Crisi and Criscino.

Both authors agree on the Greek origin of the surname and on its root referring to "gold", although Rohlfs anchors the specific form in the Grecanic dialect of Calabria and offers concrete geographical documentation, while Blunda develops the semantic motivation of the nickname that would have given rise to the surname.