The authors agree that the surname is related to the word scorza ("bark of woody plants") or to the verb scorzare ("to strip bark," and in a figurative sense "to rob, to despoil"). This base could have given rise to the surname both as a trade name —referring to one who gathered or worked bark, or used it in tanning processes— and through place names formed on that same root.

E. De Felice notes that the surname may also be an abbreviated form of nicknames compounded with scorzare, of the type Scorzabove, Scorzalupo or Scorzavillani; the element Scorzalupus is documented in Farfa Sabina as early as the 11th century. Among the possible place names as a source he mentions Scorzati, in the Vercelli area; Scorzè, in the Venice area; and Scorzo, in the Salerno area.

E. Rossoni specifies that the surname is typical of the Cosenza area, with a possible secondary line in Liguria. He adds that the form Scorzo, extremely rare, is specific to upper Cosenza, and that both forms would derive from the nickname or the place name, without ruling out either of the two paths.