E. Rossoni places this surname in the area comprising the south of the Mantua area and the central-western Emilia. According to Rossoni, it would derive from augmentative forms of the apocope of place names such as Roncoscaglia, in the Modena area, or Massa Fiscaglia, in the Ferrara area.

F. De Laurentiis proposes a different base: the nickname scaglione, which can assume various meanings. On the one hand, it designates a wide step, especially on the slopes of a mountain, so that the surname would have a toponymic or geographically descriptive origin. On the other hand, it refers to each of the four canine teeth of horses, so that the nickname would have originally alluded to a person with few teeth, but of large size.