The authors agree that the surname Ricci derives from a byname linked to curly or frizzy hair. The base is the term riccio and its dialect forms: the northern and southern rizzo / rizza, and the Ligurian rissu, all with the sense of "of curly, densely wavy hair." E. De Felice specifies that the Riccio type is pan-Italian, while the Rizzo type extends throughout the north and south of Italy, and the Risso type is predominantly proper to Liguria.

F. Miranda adds two alternative hypotheses about the origin: the term could also allude to the spiny husk of the chestnut (riccio) or to the hedgehog itself (riccio, "hedgehog"), metaphorical uses to describe a person who is rough or of closed character. Miranda further notes that the surname is present in more than 2,350 municipalities of all the Italian regions, with a greater concentration in the centre of Italy and important nuclei in Lazio, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, the Marche, Apulia and Abruzzo.

De Felice indicates that the derivatives and altered forms are predominantly Tuscan and central, with the exception of Riccitiello and Ricciulli, proper to the Naples area. The forms with an article —Lo Riccio, La Riccia— are characteristic of southern Italy, and the type Risso is the predominant one in Liguria.