Pochettino is a rare Italian surname. According to Rossoni, it is typical of the Piedmont region, although its exact province of origin cannot be identified due to the surname's very limited distribution. The surname most likely derives from a place name.

The most probable etymology connects it to the Italian and Piedmontese words poco and poch ("little" or "small"), combined with the double diminutive suffix -ettino (a combination of -etto and -ino), a formation commonly found in Northern Italian surnames and often carrying an affectionate meaning. Under this interpretation, Pochettino would literally mean "the very little one" or "the little fellow," originally a nickname describing a small-statured ancestor or an affectionate family name that later became hereditary.

An alternative hypothesis, also noted by Rossoni, links the surname to a small Piedmontese microtoponym (a local place name no longer documented in standard geographical references). In this case, the same root poch- would have described a landscape feature, with meanings such as "the small hill," "the small clearing," or "the small settlement."

The surname is extremely rare and remains concentrated in Piedmont, a region that experienced significant emigration to the Río de la Plata area between the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century.

The spelling Pocchettino, with a double c, sometimes found in Argentine records, is a graphic variant of the original Italian Pochettino. It likely arose through consonant duplication during the transcription of names in civil records in the Río de la Plata region.