The authors differ on the origin of the surname. E. Rossoni notes that it derives from the place name Atena Lucana, in the province of Potenza, although he admits that in some cases it could come from the Latin name Athenia, and that in others it would be a surname assigned to people of unknown origin.

V. Blunda proposes, on the other hand, a Greek origin, from Athena, "name of a goddess", that is, the given name of the Greek divinity Athena transformed into a surname through family transmission. According to Blunda, this form was preserved in the onomastics of Sicily by Byzantine route and was later fixed as a surname in southern Italy.

According to Rossoni, the surname presents distribution in specific and localised areas: Atena is recorded with a small cluster in Trieste, with presence also in the Naples area and in the province of Potenza. The variant D'Atena appears likewise in the Trieste area, in the province of Potenza and in Poggio Imperiale, a locality of the Foggia area.