The authors agree that the surname was formed from the Greek given name Alessandro, meaning "defender of men" or "saviour of men".

A. Bongioanni recalls that it is the name of many saints, among them Saint Alessandro the martyr (26 August) and Pope Saint Alessandro I (3 May). He notes that almost all the derived surnames have an obvious etymology, and that the alternation between the consonants x, z and g is regular in these dialects.

V. Blunda, for the Sicilian variant, derives it from the Greek etymon Alècsandros, formed from the composition of aléxein ("to defend") and anèr ("man"). He notes that its global spread is due to Alexander the Great, the Macedonian conqueror of the 4th century BC who extended Hellenic culture from Greece to India. He adds that in Sicily the name arrived both through Magna Graecia and through the later Byzantine and Christian tradition.