The authors agree that this surname has its roots in the place name Càccamo, a locality of the Palermo area, in Sicily, and in related forms spread throughout southern Italy. E. De Felice notes that the surname is peculiar to Sicily and southern Calabria, and that it derives both from the place name and from the gentilic caccamese —or, in its Sicilian form, caccamise—.

E. Rossoni agrees with that geographical distribution and specifies that the Calabrian presence is concentrated in the Reggio Calabria area. G. Rohlfs offers a broader perspective: he places the surname throughout Calabria, in the Neapolitan sphere and in Sicily, and proposes a Greek etymology from the Calabrian cáccamu ("large cauldron of the shepherds"), derived from the Greek κάκκαβος; he considers it of the same family as the surname Càccavo.

V. Blunda reinforces the Greek origin and notes as the etymon the term cacàbos, preserved through the Byzantine transmission in southern Italy. According to Blunda, the Italianised spelling of the Sicilian surname reflects the resolution of the Greek b as m.