E. De Felice notes that this surname continues the personal name Cristo, rare in the West but habitual in Eastern Christianity. It derives from the Latin Christus, an adaptation of the Greek Christós, which in turn is a calque of the Hebrew māšiah, with the proper meaning of "the anointed", that is, "the chosen" —of the Lord or of God—, equivalent to the term Messiah. He points out that it is spread in southern Italy, although it is rare in its base form; the variant Cristò is peculiar to the Grecizing and grika-speaking zones of the far south, while in the Catania area it is frequent in its derived forms.

G. Rohlfs underlines the Greek-Byzantine origin of the surname and specifies its presence in Calabria, concretely in the province of Catanzaro —in Nicotera— and in the province of Reggio Calabria. He also notes that it coincides with the place name of the contrada Cristò, documented both in Tropea and in Gioia Tauro, which suggests a possible local toponymic link. Rohlfs equates it directly with the Greek surname Christós, meaning "Christ".