E. Rossoni considers this surname typically Sardinian and very widespread in the centre and south of the island, with a main presence in the Cagliari area and also in the areas of Oristano, Carbonia-Iglesias, the Medio Campidano and Sassari. According to Rossoni, it would derive from a nickname originating in the Logudorese Sardinian term matta —"entrails, belly, paunch"— or in the southern Sardinian term matta —"plant, tree".

V. Blunda, by contrast, describes a Sicilian surname of Germanic origin, derived from the personal name Mathal, linked to the root mathal with the sense of "assembly" or "place of legal gathering", in its simple form without a second element. Blunda warns that the popular reading which associates the surname with the Italian matto ("mad, insane") is a false etymology: that adjective derives from the Late Latin mattus with a different sense, and the formal coincidence with the surname is accidental. The doubling of the consonant -tt- would answer to a feature of medieval Italian phonetics used to indicate affective or intensive forms derived from the original Germanic anthroponym.

The two sources describe homonymous surnames of independent origin: one rooted in Sardinia and the other in Sicily, with etymologies bearing no relation to each other.