The authors agree that the surname derives from a nickname of dialectal base, the word cùrcio / cùrciu, peculiar to the far south of Italy. However, they differ on the semantic reach that they attribute to it.

E. De Felice notes that the word can mean both "vulva" —a jocular or pejorative use— and "short, of low stature", and considers that by this second sense Curcio could be a variant of the surname Curto. He highlights that the surname is spread throughout southern Italy.

V. Blunda concentrates on the physical sense of the term and describes it as a nickname applied to individuals of short trunk and short limbs, a habitual motivation in Sicilian onomastics. He notes that it shares a semantic field with the surnames Curto and Cognetti, and circumscribes the origin of the surname to the sphere of Sicily.