E. Rossoni proposes two hypotheses of origin for this surname. The first links it with an archaic form of the place name of the town of Diamante, in the Cosenza area; the second, which Rossoni considers more probable, relates it to the city of Amantea, also in the Cosenza area, as the possible place of origin of the founder of the lineage. He places it as a typically Calabrian surname, peculiar to upper Cosenza, with special presence in Verbicaro.

V. Blunda proposes a different etymology of a different regional reach: he considers it a Sicilian surname of dialectal origin, derived from the word damànti, a term of Sicilian taken from Old French during the Angevin domination, meaning "diamond". As a surname it could have originated in the trade of the lapidary or jeweller who worked precious stones, or in a nickname applied to a person of firm and unbreakable character, by analogy with the hardness of the stone.

The Angevin domination was the period in which the House of Anjou (of French origin) governed parts of southern Italy, especially the Kingdom of Naples, between the 13th and 15th centuries.

The two proposals are independent of each other and point to different regions —Calabria and Sicily—, which suggests that the surname presents independent clusters of origin (ceppi).