Means "serf, slave", from Old Sicilian scavu.

E. Rossoni notes that this surname presents multiple independent lines of origin (ceppi), arisen in different regions without a direct relation between them: a small nucleus in Naples, an important presence in the Bari area and in Taranto, a nucleus in the Catanzaro and Crotone areas, and a notable nucleus in Sicily, in the Catania and Palermo areas. According to Rossoni, the surname would derive from a contracted form of the term sclavo ("slave"), which would suggest that the founders of the line would have been reduced to slavery by the Saracens.

V. Blunda, focused specifically on Sicily, agrees on the semantic origin but specifies it from the local dialect: the surname would come from the Sicilian word scàvu, equivalent to "slave," which designated the captive subjected to forced labour. Blunda adds that its transformation into a surname could have occurred from a nickname transmitted to the descendant of a freed slave.