E. Rossoni notes that this surname would derive from a dialect nickname based on the word sconz-, with the sense of "spoiled" or "ruined." Rossoni distinguishes two forms: Sconza, with a line in Campania —specifically in Pontecagnano Faiano, in the Salerno area— and another in the Cosenza area, in Calabria; and Sconzo, of a typically Sicilian character, documented in Palermo and in Valledolmo, also in the Palermo area.

V. Blunda approaches the surname from the Sicilian perspective and specifies that it comes from the dialect verb sconzàre, with the meaning of "to ruin" or "to spoil." According to Blunda, the term describes in the popular speech of the island the action of damaging something through carelessness or intention, and as a surname it would have arisen from a nickname applied to someone known for ruining tasks or causing mishaps.