The authors agree that the surname has as its base nicknames formed from the word fiocco (flake, bow or decorative knot), with two lines of interpretation: the occupational one —the one who gathered and sold flakes of wool or silk, or who made a medium-sized pasta in the shape of a bow— and the figurative or jocular one —the one who wore a knotted bow on the shirt, or who owned a vessel with a triangular front sail (fiocco, jib)—.

E. Rossoni adds an additional hypothesis: the surname could derive from alterations of the Latin cognomen Flaccus. As for its distribution, Rossoni notes that Fiocchi presents specific zones in the Milan and Pavia area, in the Bologna area, and in the area of Umbria bordering the Rieti area, including the latter. The form Fiocco, for its part, appears in the Brescia, Verona, Padua and Rovigo areas, in Lazio —especially in Rome—, in the Chieti, Campobasso, Foggia, Caserta, Naples and Salerno areas, and in those of Messina and Catania.