A. Bongioanni notes that it is a given name of Aramaic origin. According to some hagiographers, it is the name of the good thief, whom the Roman Church honours on 25 March. Bongioanni indicates that it was a name used, although not frequent, in Lombardy.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a Greek origin, derived from Dìsmas. According to this author, the form corresponds to a personal name of the Byzantine Greek repertoire, preserved as a baptismal name in the hagiographic tradition of the Mediterranean, which became a surname in eastern Sicily by the habitual route of Greek personal names.

Both authors agree that the point of departure is a proper name of a person linked to the Christian hagiographic tradition, although they differ as to the linguistic origin —Aramaic for Bongioanni, Greek for Blunda— and as to the zone of rooting: Lombardy in the first case, eastern Sicily in the second.