The authors agree that the surname derives from the trade of seller or cultivator of figs exercised by the first bearer, or from the fact that his family lived near a large concentration of fig trees.

F. Miranda specifies that ficheto or fichereto designated that concentration of fig trees, and that fichera, in Sicilian and Calabrian dialectal speech, indicates directly the fig tree. Rossoni adds that the form Fighera is specific to the Treviso area, with presence especially in Istrana, Vittorio Veneto and Preganziol.

As for the geographical distribution, E. Rossoni notes that Fichera is native to eastern Sicily. Miranda broadens this information and indicates that the surname is spread in numerous regions: Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont, Lazio, Liguria, Veneto, Tuscany, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Campania, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna and Puglia. Within Sicily, Miranda identifies zones of greater concentration in the Catania area, in the Messina area, in that of Syracuse, in the territory of Enna and in the Agrigento area.