G. Rohlfs identifies this surname as of Greek-Byzantine origin, present in Reggio Calabria —both in the city and in its province, including Gioia Tauro and the zone of the Aspromonte— and also in Sicily. He derives it from the Greek κουτσο-κρέας, composed of κουτσός ("lame, mutilated") and κρέας ("meat").

V. Blunda agrees on the Greek origin and on the compound nature of the term, although he transcribes the forms differently: coýtzòs ("mutilated") and crèas ("meat"), with the sense of "mutilated meat". He notes that the surname arose as a nickname applied to an ancestor, and links it with parallel forms such as Cuzzo, Crea and Creati, which share the same Greek roots of base.

P. Durante, for his part, proposes a different etymology: he derives the surname from the Greek kopto kreas, with the sense of "cuts meat", which implies a different root for the first element of the compound —linked to the verb κόπτω ("to cut")— instead of the adjective κουτσός ("lame, mutilated") that Rohlfs and Blunda note.