E. Rossoni notes that this surname should derive from names of localities that contain that root, or from nicknames related to the way of life of the founders of the lineages. As for its geographical distribution, Rossoni identifies specific zones of Italy where the surname is present: in Puglia, concretely in Tricase, in the province of Lecce, and in Ruvo di Puglia, in the province of Bari; with additional presences in the Campobasso, Caserta and Catania areas.

V. Blunda, on the other hand, proposes a precise etymology: the surname comes from the Greek éremites, a word that designates the one who lives in solitude, distanced from the community for religious reasons. According to Blunda, the term motivated the surname as a nickname applied to an ancestor for his condition as an anchorite. The author records this surname in Sicily and places it in close relation with the form Eremo, which appears in the immediately following entry of his work.