The authors agree in noting that it is a typically Sicilian surname of dialect origin. F. Miranda proposes that it derives by aphaeresis —the fall of the initial syllable— from the dialect term nisciuto, which according to the lexicographer Piccitto may mean "to go out or enter a place," "to peep out" (referring to the sun) or "to be born, come into the world." Miranda adds a second hypothesis: that the surname could come from the dialect sciutto or sciuto, with the sense of "dry," alluding to a physical characteristic of the first bearer.

V. Blunda starts from the dialect word sciùtu, a participle that in ordinary Sicilian speech designates one who has left his place of origin, with the meaning of "gone out, emigrated." From this perspective, the surname would have arisen as a nickname applied to someone who had departed from his native locality or returned after a long absence. Both etymological lines are compatible and share the same phonetic base.

Miranda notes that the surname is especially concentrated in the Catania area, and is found in all the provinces of Sicily, with a secondary diffusion in Lombardy, Lazio, Piedmont, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.