The authors agree that it is a patronymic surname: the first bearer was the son of someone named Errico (or Enrico), a medieval name of Germanic origin. F. Miranda specifies that this name derives from the Germanic Heinrich, composed of haimi ("house, homeland") and rich ("powerful, dominant"), with the approximate sense of "powerful in his homeland".

E. Rossoni notes that D'Errico is spread throughout southern Italy, while the variant D'Errigo is concentrated in Rome and in the Reggio Calabria area, particularly in Campo Calabro. Miranda broadens the geographical distribution and indicates that the surname is found in Campania and Puglia as zones of greater presence, and also in Lombardy, Piedmont, Lazio, Basilicata, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Veneto, in addition to several provinces of Sicily, among them Palermo, Catania, Ragusa, Trapani, Messina and Enna.