The authors agree that this surname, together with its variants Insingo and Insinna, is of Sicilian origin and derives from an auspicious name based on the Latin expression in hoc signo ("in this sign"), understood as "of the Cross", in reference to the celebrated phrase in hoc signo vinces ("by this sign you shall conquer"). This expression is associated with the vision which, according to tradition, the emperor Constantine the Great had before a battle, and which was adopted as a motto of strong Christian symbolism in military and religious contexts from Late Antiquity onwards.

E. Rossoni locates the surname mainly in Mistretta, in the Messina area; Palermo; Catania; and Regalbuto, in the Enna area. The variant Insingo is also Sicilian and practically unique. Insinna has one cluster in Vallelunga Pratameno, in the Caltanissetta area, and another in Palermo.

F. Miranda broadens the geographical distribution and indicates that the surname is found in around ninety municipalities across several Italian regions: besides Sicily —where it appears in every province, with a particular presence in Palermo, Messina and Catania, and in the Enna area in localities such as Regalbuto, Catenanuova and Nicosia—, it is also recorded in Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, Lazio, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia.

Surnames in Italy further records other hypotheses of origin, put forward by various genealogical sources, which link the surname to a contraction of the auspicious name Boninsinga or to the Latin term insula ("island"), which would bring it closer to an onomastic or a toponymic surname respectively.