The authors agree that this is a surname proper to Sicily, of dialect origin, derived from a word designating a resin or aromatic essence.

E. Rossoni notes that the surname is diffused mainly in the Palermo and Agrigento areas, although it also appears in those of Caltanissetta, Ragusa, Catania and Messina. He links it to the Sicilian term munciuvì, of probable Turkish origin, which according to the abbot Michele Pasqualino of Palermo —in the 18th century— designated an oily, curative and very fragrant essence, attributed to the lemon tree, to the laurus benzoin or to the croton benzoe.

V. Blunda specifies that the dialect word is mungiuvì, with the meaning "benzoin, Oriental aromatic resin", and traces its etymology to the Arabic lubān ŵāwī ("incense of Java"), introduced through Mediterranean trade. Blunda further proposes that the surname could have originated in the trade of the perfumer or the seller of essences.