The authors agree that this surname derives from Roncesvalles (in French Roncevaux), the celebrated pass of the western Pyrenees in Navarre, the scene in the year 778 of the defeat of the rearguard of Charlemagne, under the command of Orlando or Rolando, at the hands of Muslims and Basques. E. De Felice notes that the name spread through the Carolingian epic and especially through the Chanson de Roland from the 12th century, and that the surname was probably formed from an appellative reflecting the old forms of the place name in French and Spanish.

F. Miranda specifies that the place name means "valley of the dock plants or brambles," and details the geographic distribution of the surname: it presents a main trunk in Sicily, with a presence in the Catania, Messina, Syracuse, Enna, Agrigento and Ragusa areas, besides scattered presences in Lazio, Veneto, Piedmont, Campania, Liguria, Apulia and Lombardy. De Felice agrees in noting the Catania area as the one of greatest concentration, particularly for the base form Ronsisvalle.