The authors agree that this surname is of Greek-Byzantine origin and derives from the Greek term κονία ("sand"). G. Rohlfs documents it in the province of Reggio Calabria, specifically in Roccella Jonica and Monasterace, and presents it as a variant of Conìa, to whose entry he refers.

V. Blunda, for his part, analyses the surname from the Sicilian onomastics of Greek-Byzantine origin and specifies that the term designates the granular material of the soil, which would have motivated its use as a microtoponym applied to the one who came from a sandy terrain or lived near dune zones.